


The Immortal's Curse

by ClockRose



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Depression, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, F/M, Family, Friendship, Loss of Trust, Magic, Mild Gore, Past Lives, Self-Acceptance, Trust Issues, trans male character(s), trust being built, written to Sleeping at Last and HadesTown
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24141235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockRose/pseuds/ClockRose
Summary: Ozpin and Salem were both cursed by the gods, and agents their advice, they fell in love once again, but this time, they had children. Four little girls gifted with magic like they were before everything happened, yet, what if magic was not the only thing they gained from their parents? What if they gained the curse as well, yet it evolved so that they are with their host from its birth and only show if needed? Like, say the host's life is put in constant danger so the Daughter's magic slowly seeps into the host throughout its life not only offering protection, but also their magic, and on the rare occasion, the Daughter acts like Ozpin dose to Oscar.That's what we're exploring here. RWBY holds the souls of Ozma and Salem's daughter's and slowly as life gets worse and worse, they slowly become one.How will Ozpin react to the host of one of his daughters dating his host? Or, even his children still being around? What about Salem? Will this change how the war goes or is history doomed to repeat it's self?*Starts at the end of V1*Kinda slow start*Written with the support of my kitty
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Neopolitan & Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan & Ruby Rose (RWBY), Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose, Ozma/Salem (RWBY), Ozpin & Blake Belladonna, Ozpin & Oscar Pine, Ozpin & Ruby Rose, Ozpin & Weiss Schnee, Ozpin & Yang Xiao Long, Ozpin/Salem (RWBY), Ruby Rose & Roman Torchwick, Salem & Blake Belladonna, Salem & Ruby Rose, Salem & Weiss Schnee
Comments: 60
Kudos: 59





	1. So the drip begins

Watching the Airship land, the ball of dread started to bubble up in Blake’s stomach. A little voice in the back of her head told her that the White Fang would be on it. It also told her to run. That this was not a situation or a fight she could get into, espeshely with Sun. She had only met him days ago and here she was, putting blind faith in him. Trusting he wouldn’t leave her out to dry.

The ship opened and people walked out. Just looking confirmed her fears, the White Fang was behind this.

“Oh no,” she said the dread evident in her voice.

Sun narrowed his eyes in suspicion and asked, “Is that them?” He looked ready for a fight.

“Yes,” she paused for a second, “It’s them."

“You really didn’t think it was them, did you?” he asked drowning out the voice of the leader.

“No, I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right.”

Suddenly an all to familiar voice rang out from the ship. “Hey. What's the holdup?” It asked. Blake couldn’t believe it. No way would the White Fang work for or with humans. Especially not someone like Roman Torchwick. Shooting to her feet she drew Gambol Shroud, her trusty weapon, and jumped from her rooftop lookout and onto the ground below quickly ducking behind some SDC crates.

She watched as Torchwick berated a Faunus.

“No, you idiot. This isn’t a leash!” She took her chance, and while he was distracted, she launched herself forward and brought her Katana to the human’s neck pausing just a hair away from drawing blood. The man cried out in surprise.

“What the! Oh,” he stated rolling his eyes once he saw her. She cut him off pulling on all her courage and remembering all the times her parents commanded attention when they lead.

“Nobody move!” her voice rang out as she pulled, Gambol Shroud digging a little more into the man’s neck threatening to draw blood.

“Hey! Take it easy there Little Lady!” Roman said trying to get her to ease up a tad.

She ignored him, instead, focusing on addressing her fellow Faunus. “Brothers of the White Fang,” her voice filling the aria and removing the ribbon from her ears, “Why are you aiding this,” she paused and then spat the word like it was rotting food from her mouth, “scum?”

“Oh kid-o,” he said a tad sad, “didn’t you get the memo?”

A confused noise escaped her throat and the voice in her head told her to run. It wasn’t safe anymore.

“The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together,” Roman continued.

Shocked and confused and not understanding why she did the only logical thing she could, she asked, “What?”

“Oh yes, we work together now.”

Tell me what it is, or I’ll,” she faltered for a second, “put an end to your little operation!”

“Wouldn’t really call it a little operation,” he said as two more airships arrived drowning out his voice at the end. Waiting for them to land, and with her distracted, Roman pulled the trigger on his cane blasting her away.

He quickly sent another shot after Blake and she scrambled to get out of the way. It didn’t help that she barely had any sense of what was up and what was down. She somersaulted out of the way, shot after shot, ignoring his taunts of, “Here kitty-kitty-kitty.” she left a clone and then dived behind a shipping container but not befor Roman shot at her heels and started to stalk over to her.

Her heart was pounding and her ears ringing. She had a migraine coming on and it was only just barely noticed due to the adrenalin coursing through her veins. She waited, getting a grip on her senses, counting her fingers and toes. How could she had been so rash? So inexperienced? So much like Ruby to think she could do this with sheer will alone? She had dived in head first, without knowing what their numbers were, without knowing the firepower they held. It was such a stupid thing to do, and now she was either going to die here or be taken prisoner and either way, she would most likely be painted a villain by the media and her parents would watch and never know that she had left and tried to start a better life for herself.

Her knees started to give in as she realized just how royally fucked she was. She could hear him. His steps grew closer, and even as the voice in her head screamed, begged, pleaded with her to move, to run, she couldn’t find it in herself to do so. Tears slipped from her eyes as she prayed, she didn’t know to who, but she did. For something, anything to help her. She didn’t want to die. Her eyes slipped close and she allowed the hot tears to slip from her eyes. If anyone was watching closely they would notice a slight shimmery pink pearly look to them, but no one was, and thus, the detail went unnoticed as the young girl cried for everything she had done, and for the things she had yet to do.

Right befor Roman reached her though, he stopped, and picked a banana peel off his hat and grumbled as he heard the kitty had back up.

“Great!” he thought, “More annoying children.”

“Leave her alone!” Sun yelled as he used the criminal’s face like a springboard.

Blake couldn’t believe what she heard. Sun hadn’t left her. He was still here. And willing to take Roman on if he had to, just so she didn’t have to. Pulling herself together and whipping away the tears she shoved her emotions away into the box she kept them in and she got ready to help him. She peaked around the corner and watched as he spun his giant stick around and pushed and pulled the White fang where he wanted them, sometimes bashing them in the head if he didn’t feel like dealing with them. It wasn’t a sloppy style, yet it wasn’t refined like a Huntsman’s either.

Taking her chance when Roman shot at Sun, Blake threw herself at the criminal claiming him as her own to fight. She still had something left to prove to herself, whether she knew it or not. She would feel like a failure if she didn’t bring him in herself.

The two dueled and as Blake threw everything she had at him, but he simply paired her away turning and striking where he could. He was refined and skilled, years of experience shown through. She was erratic and wild. Unskilled and simply swinging like a child would swing a stick thinking it was a sword, compared to him.

She slipped and Roman made contact with her face. Taking his chance he didn’t let up and started to beat her with his weapon. Seeing her struggle Sun lept and broke his staff into its gun-chucks form taking shot after shot at the older man. The two then commenced their deadly duel shots firing around them.

There was a pause and Blake came from the side knocking Roman onto his back.

Frustrated with the two teens he sat up and shot a crate from the sky right above them making it drop. Had the two not moved in time, they would have likely been crushed.

Not a second later a strong-willed high-pitched voice called out.

“Hey!” Looking over Roman’s face lit up excited to see his nemesis again, but a little frustrated he’d have to share her with these two, who would likely be on her side.

“Oh hello Red, isn't it past your bedtime?” he mocked. She simply stared down at him from the top of the wear house, anger filling her tiny body. She said something, but it was unclear as to what or who it was directed at as she kept her voice low. She turned her head away from him, and taking his chance in one swift motion he shot at her anger filling his that she wouldn’t give him the attention he wanted from her.

She was thrown back taking the shot square in the stomach, her Aura the only thing protecting her from the initial impact. As she flew through the air, her eyes sparked behind her closed eyelids and her landing was softened, well as much as it could be without the magic in her blood being active.

Roman laughed maniacally as only a cartoon character could. Not a second later, a girl stood in Ruby's place a sword coming out of her backpack. Then it split into eleven more and she hopped off landing on the ground taking some of the White Fang grunts with her.

She waved her hands around and the swords followed. She moved with a skill set only those with special training could. She took out droves of the Faunus and didn’t break a sweat. Not even as three more airships showed up and started to rain bullets on the group.

She pulled herself up against the farthest wall and started up a beam of green energy all while still maintaining that smile. She launched the energy and within seconds the ships were sliced in half the occupants falling to their certain death if they were lucky. If they lived, they were sure to be punished if they returned having failed their mission.

Roman, seeing as this was no longer going to go the way he wanted, hopped on a ship and fled back to base.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The VPD showed up a few seconds later and detained the group of students as they checked to see if anything else was going on. The four of them sat on boxes and waited for their rides to show. Blake was disappointed in herself and was scared of what would be said by her team. She hadn’t spoken to them for days. Not since they found out she was Faunus.

The voice in her head reassured her though that they would not be mad at her for who she was, but simply for her actions in fleeing them when the truth came out. It reminded her that she still had her parents on Menagerie if worse came to worse.

Seeing the remaining two teammates come up, Blake and Ruby stood to greet them. Ruby nodded to her blond, busty, firecracker of a sister, Yang, in greeting and looked at her partner the Snowqueen, Wiess, with a bit of warning and worry. It wasn’t often Ruby pulled rank as the leader, but the unspoken “Be kind” was there. Wiess needed to put her past with Faunus behind her if she wanted to continue to be apart of Team RWBY. And what better way, then to reintroduce yourself.


	2. Tukson's Book Trade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RWBY plans to have a fun day before classes start, but visiting Blake's favorite bookshop does not go to plan. Ozpin and Glynda have to come to rescue them before things get worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Quick Note before you read! This chapter contains some gore, and if you do not like to read that, then please skip this chapter! I want people to be safe so please be careful!

It had been a few months since that night on the Docks and to say Ruby was satisfied with what had happened since then would be an understatement. She was very pleased with the bonding the team had done since that night. The tension had gone away, well for the most part. There were times when Blake would catch Weiss off guard and the Snowqueen would become snippety and would lash out. 

Weiss would try to hold her tongue when those times would come around, but there were the odd days when some of the Atlas attitude would rear its head and she would say something she didn’t really mean. When that happened Ruby and Yang made sure that Weiss understood where she had gone wrong and why what she was saying wasn’t appropriate.

It was difficult for her to understand sometimes, but that was not her own fault, rather, her kingdom and family were to blame. But, Weiss tried her best and every time she offended Blake or the sisters, she quickly apologized. 

Despite the bumps though, Team RWBY seemed to forge a strong path towards becoming the world's greatest huntresses together, well, that’s how Ruby saw it, and today she had the best plan to get the most out of the day with team bonding and games. And, all right before the new semester!

When she had finished her food she asked her team to meet her in their room and then sped off to get ready. She had a plan, and it was going to be perfect.

She had been studying her team for months. Trying to find out what made them tick and what they would like to do for activities. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what everyone wanted to do, so she pulled out the banner she had been working on and hung it from the beds.

She then pulled out her binder of things she wanted to accomplish. She had a schedule, time tables, and an extra set for her team. She had even color-coded things to their colors. Everything was either light blue, yellow, or purple. To say she had taken a page out of Weiss’s book would be an understatement, this used to be Weiss’s binder after all.

Hearing her team approach the door she zipped over to the center of the room and got her confetti read. When the door opened she popped it and yelled, “Surprise!”

“Ruby,” Yang started but didn’t get to finish as the girl quickly started speaking.

“Look! I know! But we only have today before the new semester starts and I want to do some team bonding before we have to do school again! I even did my own research,” she quickly handed them their respective timetables, “everyone gets their own time to do activities that I think you’ll like and everyone has to participate! I even blocked out food, water, bathroom, and travel times! Weiss gets her puzzles and the like, Blake gets to take us to her favorite book shops and we have to each choose at least one thing to read with her and Yang gets,” she trailed off at the end grumbling a bit.

“What?” Weiss asked, a little confused, and thrown that Ruby had clearly spent a lot of time on this. Where had this studious girl been when finals came around! Well, now that Weiss knew that this Ruby existed, she wasn’t going to let her slack the next time they had a test.

“I said,” Blake cut her off. 

“We heard you, but we didn’t hear what Yang gets. All we see is our timeframes,” she turned to show Ruby her timetable.

“Oh, well, um…” she paused taking a deep breath and then starting again swallowing her anxiety, “Weiss gets puzzles, Blake gets books, and Yang,” she paused one last time taking a calming breath, “Yang gets sparring.” 

There was a pause and the room fell with silence. Weiss was the one to break it.

“Why would that be so hard,” It was Ruby’s turn to cut her off.

“Look,” she nodded to her sister. When Blake and Weiss turned to look at Yang they could see her vibrating with excitement the way Ruby normally would. Then she exploded pouncing the team's leader.

“Oh! I haven’t had a good spar since we left home! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” the eldest team member cried. “Okay!” she got off of Ruby, “So, who’s first?”

“I am,” Blake said.

“Okay! Then let's go! We can’t let Ruby’s really well thought out day and hard work go to waste!” she said grabbing a change of clothes and heading to the bathroom so she could get out of her school uniform. 

Weiss signed before calling out, “You better just change if you want me doing this Xiao Long!”

“Yah yah!” came the muffled response through the door.

~~~

After everyone was changed and on the airship, Weiss finally asked the question.

“So, where are we going Blake?”

After some thought the girl responded, “I was thinking we could stop by Tukson’s and a few others. There's this one in the local mall that’s surrounded by a few other shops I think you guys would like.”

“I thought we were just doing books,” Yang said right before they all looked at Ruby for clarification. They didn’t want to stomp on her plans for the day. They could all tell she put a lot of thought into this and they wanted her plan to go well.

“Um, well, this is Blake’s allotted time. What she says goes, and I guess if she thinks we’ll like some other shops, I’m sure we can at least look, right?” The three elder girls quickly looked at each other for understanding and agreed to go with that.

“Alright! Books and shopping! Glad I brought money!” said Yang.

~~~

After making their way to Tukson’s Cross Streets, the team decided to stop and grab a quick snack at the public vending machine.

Ruby decided to grab a bottle of water and a pack of cookies, and while Yang also grabbed water she traded out the cookies for a bag of spicy chips. From the looks of it, it didn't seem like Ruby, or their dad for that matter would be able to stomach them Ruby noted. Blake settled for a small pack of donuts and an energy drink. It seemed she was going to indulge in her sweet side today. Weiss took a bit longer than the rest. It was difficult for her to choose because she didn't know what she wanted, and she didn't want to come off as lame to the others.

_ "Why is it that they can pick so easily?! Oh, what about those chips Yang got? They look good. How bad could they be?"  _ A voice in her head told her that it was going to be a bad idea, so she took one last look at everything and finally just decided to pick the random bag of what looked like trail mix. The bag said 'Chexmix' and Weiss didn't know if that was the brand or if the Southern Kingdoms just called it that.

When she retrieved her bag and her team was finally allowed to see her choice they looked pleased, till she tried to open it like a regular bag of chips.

Ruby and Yang tried to suppress their laughter but were failing miserably as Weiss got more and more frustrated with the situation. Finally, the heiress snapped, "What is so funny?!"

"It's a resealable bag, " Blake commented while the other two finally got their laughter under control.

"Huh?"

"Here, " said Blake, taking the bag from the other girl. She turned to show her how she slipped her nail under part of it and used it to slit it open to reveal the flap that would help open and close the bag. She then pulled it open and quickly showed her how to close it before handing it back. Weiss was quite fascinated by it. It was the first time she was seeing this and she could now see why this existed.

"Thank you, " she said quietly, opening it herself. It brought a little pride to herself that she had opened the bag on her own, albeit with a little help in the beginning.

~~~

Now, with their snacks in hand, the team headed off to the bookstore with Blake in the lead. 

“So,” Yang asked, “why do you like this book shop so much?”

“It sells both new and used books, the owner’s really nice, and it’s not a chain so they don’t turn people away,” she said. The real reason she liked it so much was unspoken. It didn’t discriminate against Faunus.

~~~

Reaching the store the group stopped.

“Looks like it’s closed,” Weiss noted.

“Wha~ No! I looked it up! The website says it’s supposed to be open!” Ruby said quickly tossing Yang her snacks so she could grab her scroll. She had put so much time and research into this. She couldn’t be wrong. Pulling up the site she quickly found the times and saw that, yes, it was supposed to be open, so she didn’t understand why it should be closed. There wasn’t a sign saying any emergency had popped up, so she did the only thing she could think of. 

As Ruby approached the door her team piled their food and drinks in her bag so their hands would be free if they needed to get out of the shop quickly. With the things that had happened to them recently, it was a good choice on their part.

Grabbing the handle she opened the door and walked in, the others following quickly behind.

“Lights are off and yet the door’s open. Either the store was closed in a hurry, or something happened,” Weiss remarked, pulling out her scroll and turning on the flashlight so she could see more. Blake turned to where she remembered the light switches being and fumbled around for it. Yang went to her right and to try and find a fuse box while Ruby walked deeper into the store.

Ruby, having not run into anything for her first couple of steps, decided to take a regular one. That was her mistake as her foot did not meet the floor, but rather a few haphazardly discarded books. Crying out in surprise and fear of landing on her face Ruby turned her body so she landed on her butt instead.

“Oof,” she said when she landed. “Ew,” she said as she felt something sticking to her hands, “Someone spilled their drink! Bleh!” As she spoke, Blake finally found the switch and flipped it on. Turning to look at Ruby, with the intent to help her up, her team stopped, all color draining from their faces, horror written across them.

“Finely! Some light. Oh! Gross! It’s red! And not even my shade! This is going to be so hard to,” she looked up and caught their looks. Weiss looked utterly sick and probably would be very soon. Blake looked like she was about to break, and Yang was unreadable. An uneasy feeling filled her body as she held her breath and turned to see what she landed in.

There behind her was a full-grown man laying on his stomach, his face flush with the ground, arms outstretched and claws coming from his hands as if he had been attacking something or someone. But, what really caught her was the exit hole on his back. It was tattered and ripped and bone was everywhere, as was what remains of his innards.

No matter how much her anatomy class at Signal had grossed her out, this, this was not something she ever thought she would see. She took a shaky breath and looked back down at the floor and her hands. This was not a sticky drink that hadn’t been cleaned, this was blood.

She rubbed her fingers together as if this was the first time she had ever seen the substance.

“Ruby?” Yang was the first one to speak her voice shaky and unsure.

“Uh?” her own voice was the same.

“What,” Ruby cut her off.

“I, I don,” she paused, trying not to stutter as tears started to stream down her face. She tried again. “I don’t know, but we need to call someone.”

“Who?” Weiss truly sounded sick.

“The Police,” Blake said before falling to her knees, her own tears coming on just like Ruby’s.

Yang pulled out her scroll and dialed. She felt numb as she watched Weiss go over to try and comfort the two crying girls. She wasn’t doing well at the task, but she was doing the best she could seeing as her body threatened to expel her snack from a few moments ago.

“Hello? 9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked as Yang was connected.

“Hello? Hi, I, um,” she cursed herself for sounding so shaken, “There's a body,” she got out. She didn’t know what else to say. It was true, yet it felt so wrong to say. This man probably had a family, kids! And here she was simply saying he was nothing more than a husk. It probably didn’t help that he was Faunus too.

“Alright honey, where are you? Do you have anyone else with you?” the operator asked, pulling Yang from her thoughts.

“Um, a book shop, um,” she looked to the window and read the name backward, “Tukson’s. Tukson’s Book Trade,” she also gave the cross streets.

“Okay, and are you alone or no, and is anyone else injured?”

“No, I’m with my team, and my sister slipped and landed on him, but I don’t think anyone else is hurt,” her voice cracked.

“Okay, I’m going to stay on the line with you,” the operator trailed off prompting her for her name.

“Yang. Yang Xiao Long. Oh! We need to call the school! Weiss,” Yang covered the mouthpiece on her scroll so she could address the girl, “Call Beacon. Use the emergency line for students. I have a feeling we are going to need someone to pick us up, okay?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed pulling her own scroll out again and quickly calling. She could hear the faint sound of sirens quickly approaching.

After a few minutes, Yang opened the door to the paramedics. Two approached the crying girls and took them from the shop. A police officer approached Weiss to ask her some questions, but she only pointed to Yang and continued her call with the school.

Shortly after the official’s arrival, a black car pulled up and Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch quickly stepped out before quickly finding the officer in charge. They talked for a moment before Ozpin pulled away and headed towards the ambulance. Thankfully it was turned away from the street and the sidewalk surrounding the building was barricaded off. He didn't need the press hounding his students just for a story about some Faunus shop owner being murdered in the middle of the day.

Approaching the vehicle he made himself as friendly as possible. He didn't know what this had done to any of the members of the team, and he didn't really want to find out in the middle of a public place, especially if this pushed the young silver eyed warrior. He didn't need to push her timeline up more than he already had. Two years’ worth of planning time had to be done overnight when he accepted her into the academy that night. It was one of the best, and worst, decisions of his life. And he married Salem  _ and  _ was king. Twice! 

Upon reaching the open doors he knocked so as to not to startle anyone. Taking a look he could see the four girls sitting there with shock blankets wrapped around their shoulders. Miss Xiao Long looked like the least concerned one of the group, but he knew looks could be deceiving. He couldn't help but remember the little girl that preferred to wear slacks to the dresses made for her. And, looking at Miss Schnee, he could see this was the first time she had been confronted with death. He remembered when the news hit of her grandfather's passing. He also remembered how everything was staged, even her father’s tears. Ozpin knew what the man was happy for the elder Schnee’s passing. His wife was in no way fit to run, and the true heirs were too young at the time leaving only him as the final choice. It had frustrated Ozpin when he found out. Not to mention all the power went straight to his head. The only reason Ozpin didn’t fight it was because of the children. One was with James by the fall, the other’s head was filled with stories of the other schools, and the youngest, well, all he could do was provide someone every now and then for the boy to confide in.

“Hello? Who are you?” was what brought the man from his musings. He turned and looked the paramedic up once before remembering the reason he had been pulled from his office so quickly by Glynda and his assistant.

“Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy. Those,” he nodded to RWBY, “are my students. Are you the head paramedic?”

“No, but she is,” said the paramedic and he nodded to a woman with blond hair pulled into a high ponytail. She wore the uniform black pants and white shirt, but when she turned to face Ozpin-after the subordinate grabbed her so she could talk to him-he almost died of shock. For a split second, he thought he saw Salem.  _ His  _ Salem. But, the only thing that stopped that was that one of her eyes was not, in fact, green-blue like his Ex-wife’s but an amber color. 

Deciding to shove these thoughts away for the time being to take a good hard look at later, the headmaster greeted the head Paramedic.

"Hello, I think they, " he nodded to RWBY, "are mine." An awkward pause filled the air as she flipped through her papers. Ozpin couldn't tell if she was judging him for something he did or said. It was quite unnerving if anyone asked him, but people weren't so his thoughts went unknown. Finally, after a good three minutes of this, the women spoke.

"So, you're the person who thought it was a great idea to let them find a body?" Her voice was full of sarcasm and  _ not  _ in a good way.

"I'm sorry?" He asked putting on the sweatiest old man persona he could. Inside he was rage monologuing.  _ "Who do you think you are, you insufferable women! I am Ozma The Great! I have defeated monsters that would make you scream in terror! I-"  _ he paused noting Ruby and Blake out of the corner of his eye. Neither seemed okay at all, but he didn't have time to study them any closer as the paramedic decided to grace him with her voice again.

"You run the Academy. They are your students, and I do believe that there is a clause in the agreement that both students and parents must sign before a student is accepted that states that faculty will be the student's guardian while they are in the school's care. Or, did you update that recently?" 

To say Ozpin was a little surprised someone who didn’t go to his school knew that was a little on the not true side of things, but these were things he could look at later. He could defend his pride and honor later. Everything involving him could just wait. He really just needed the girls in the car right now. The way the paramedics were probing and the officer that continued to ask them questions, well it was starting to spell trouble. 

“I don’t see how that helps right now. I would just like my students,” he really just wanted this woman to go away, “please.”

She scowled for a moment before handing him release forms. She didn’t seem pleased but he could hardly care right now. It looked like Miss. Xiao Long was about to blow, and given that her semblance sometimes included fire, and she was currently sitting in a vehicle, he didn’t need to take care of  _ that  _ either.

With the papers signed he walked over to the girls to collect them.

“Hello,” he said this time addressing the team. “I do think it’s time we get back to the academy, no?” He figured giving them what looked like an option to return would help them a bit.

The team nodded and removed the blankets from around their shoulders. What he saw shocked him a great deal. It was the first time he got a good look at not just their faces and it was no wonder they looked like they had been through war. This must have been the first time that the cold reality of the world faced them.

Miss Xiao Long was fine but clearly was haunted by her childhood. He remembered when Summer had died. It was sad enough that she had gotten so close to killing Salem, but her family didn’t even have a body. Why those with a semblance disappeared when they died, he would never know. Maybe it was the remnants of magic in their blood making it so that magic wouldn’t return?

Miss Belladonna had lost a friend, so it was not shocking that she was shaken up, but she didn’t look like classes were going to be an option for a week or two. And considering she most likely knew the man who was now in a body bag headed to the morgue, it was not going to be a good time ahead of her.

Miss Schnee’s waist had blood on it as well as some stray handprints. Looking to Miss. Rose, it became clear where they had come from.

Miss. Rose was covered in blood, her front had a few spots and streaks like she had tried to wipe her hands of it before realizing there was too much to get off by simply wiping. The paramedics had gotten most of it, but some still remained. The back of her skirt looked like a murder scene, and considering he had gotten a look at the actual one that had caused this mess in the first place as they pulled up, it said a lot. It also looked like some muscle tissue and a few fragments of what remained of his spine had hooked onto the lacey undercoat of the article of clothing. He had a feeling she was going to burn it after today. He wouldn’t blame Miss Rose either. It wasn’t going to come out.

Leading them to the car he pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked it before opening the back door for them. Under normal circumstances, he would let them get settled by themselves, but this was not normal.

Before Ruby and Weiss had completely climbed in a reporter broke through the barricade and got past some officers and managed to reach the car. That’s where things started to get ugly.

The reporter started to throw questions at the two. Others took this as their cue to try and get a story as well and soon the car was surrounded by a mob of people throwing questions at them. Ozpin was trying his best to just get them in the car and away from the flash of the cameras, and he almost succeeded, but one of them grabbed Weiss’s wrist and refused to let go. She tried to pull it away while Ruby tried to pull her into the car away from the mob. Yang and Blake were doing their best to hold the doors closed, but sadly, it was a free for all.

_ “Why? Why do you need this bloody story?!” _ Ozpin asked himself as he tried to fend the press away from the young girls. It was starting to get ugly and he didn’t know what was going to happen, but he didn’t need the girls being blamed for damages. Today had already been traumatic for them, he didn’t need it getting worse, so he loosened the restaurants on his Arua and let it slip out. The results were almost instantaneous, but not the way he predicted.

His Aura did do what he thought it would. The press stopped mobbing as they were not used to Aura being used the way it was. The only person he could see that wasn’t truly affected was Glynda, but she did have concern written across her face but in a matter of seconds the building came crashing down around him. 

White glyphs appeared around the car and the press right before they pushed outward. It sent people flying, but only those who were members of the press. Ozpin quickly looked over to Weiss to see her own Aura die down.

_ “Flight or fight?! Fuck~,” _ he groaned to himself,  _ “Well, this shit storm just got worse.” _ He quickly shouted to Glynda to start catching people right before he got Ruby and Weiss in the car. He then left to help his lieutenant with the angry reporters.

_ “This is honestly your own fault. You shouldn’t mob hunters or huntresses who just got done with some things. This is why I hate the press. You’re all the same!” _

~~~

When Ruby and Weiss finally got settled in the car Yang locked the doors. Ruby shifted in her seat trying to not stick to everything. Finally, she decided it was a futile attempt and just leaned back with her bag on her lap. After a moment or two, she pulled out her water and took a sip before passing out everyone’s snacks.

“So,” Bake said, “What was with the catapults, Weiss?” She wasn’t attacking the girl, but she also didn’t want to sit in silence.

“I don’t know. As far as I know, Winter’s never done anything like that.”

“Mom?” Yang asked. It wasn’t often the Snowqueen mentioned her family.

“Sister. Special Ops.”

“Ah,” responded the blond as a more comfortable silence filled the car. Finally, the two teachers got in and the car pulled away from the curb. 

Ruby pulled out her scroll after a few moments and opened her map when she realized they weren’t heading to the airships. She quickly texted her team the information. They grew tense at not knowing where the teachers were taking them.

“There is a back road up to the school. It’s normally used in an emergency or in cases like this,” Glynda said, causing them to relax till Ruby voiced her question.

“Are we in trouble?”

“For what?” Glynda asked, a bit confused. Ozpin decided to just listen to the conversation as he drove them back. He was going to need a nap after this. And maybe a drink. He wondered if Qrow was in town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So, you got this far! What did you think? Let me know!


	3. Planing Revenge

Pulling up to the school Ozpin could feel RWBY sigh in relief. 

Due to the bookstore, the time it took him and Glynda to get there, what it took to get the girls  _ into  _ the car, and taking the long way back to the school, the sun was setting by the time he parked. He couldn’t say he was displeased with this though. He was exhausted and was itching for a fight to let more of his Aura out, but seeing as how that had ended just a bit ago, he knew that was a horrible idea. Shots sounded like a good idea too, at least the more he thought about it.

Getting out he opened the door so RWBY could get out and just so their day could end. His, unfortunately, was just beginning.

Yang, Blake, and Weiss got out with ease, but after a moment of no Ruby he popped his head in to see what was wrong.

“I’m stuck,” came the small reply. A little confused he got in the back to see what she meant and after a moment of examining the situation, he realized she truly was. The blood that covered her backside had hardened and stuck to the upholstery of the seats making it very difficult for her to get up without either destroying her own clothes more than they already were or the seat.

“Glynda,” he said, popping his head out of the open door, “Take the rest of RWBY back to their dorm, and on your way back can you please bring a change of clothes for Miss. Rose, a knife, and call the insurance and cleaners for the car. I will stay here.”

“Alright. I’ll be back as soon as possible,” and with that WBY headed off to get some much-needed rest while Ruby and Ozpin waited for Glynda to return.

~~~

As time slowly passed Ruby got more and more anxious. She didn’t like being in confined places with people she didn’t know, and while she knew the headmaster, and she knew him and her uncle were friends, she just  _ didn’t _ know him.

_ “You could ask him questions. Favorite food? No, he’s old and he’s had so much time to try everything out there! How about color? He’s wearing it you, idiot! What’s with the cane? It’s clearly his weapon! What type of huntsman would run a school and not have their weapon constantly on them? Ask some good questions Ruby!” _ she argued with herself.

Ozpin seeing her getting visibly more uncomfortable waiting tried to come up with conversation starters himself without sounding like a dinosaur, which was difficult considering he  _ technically _ was. 

_ “Video games? No, while she’s a child, she doesn't like sitting in one place for long. Music? You can’t relate to that. But music is universal! We had it when magic was around! Asking her how she is is stupid, there is no way she will tell you. While you know her, her team does not have the best truth track record. What is something you can get her to talk about! Wait,” _ he fought with himself before getting an idea.

“So,” he started not liking how he started at all, “I know Signal has you create your own weapons, and Qrow taught you how to use a Scythe, but what made you want one, other than the aesthetic?” He wanted to facepalm. That was the stupidest way he could have asked.

“Who says the aesthetic was part of the decision making?” she asked, a bit skeptical. Ozpin just raised an eyebrow at her as he turned to look at her. “Okay, so it was part of it, and I know she will need an upgrade before I graduate, Qrow always points it out when he comes home, but one of the many reasons was because I didn’t feel comfortable with anything else.” There was a part of her that knew that was true, but another part of her didn't know if that was true. She had tried other things, yes, but she still wasn’t completely confident in her choice even though Crescent Rose had always felt like an extension of her limb. “What about you?” she asked, trying to get the conversation off her. She didn’t feel like answering questions right now, and Ozpin could respect that.

“I didn’t actually make this,” he tapped his cane lovingly.

“Really? Then who did? The craftsmanship looks beautiful.”

Ozpin was hesitant. He hadn’t told people where it came from for many reasons one being they never asked and just assumed it was actually a cane, and the other being his family made it for him.

“My family made it for me,” he had to be careful with what he was saying because if this got out, it could do so much damage to him and his reputation. He had carefully crafted it over the years, ever since he come into this life and he wasn’t about to fuck it up for himself. “Right after my daughters found their Semblance. My wife organized the entire thing. She said she was planning it for months, but she couldn’t plan anything that wasn’t a fight more than a couple of hours ahead of time. One of the many reasons she had me do everything that didn’t require her input,” when he laughed it had a note of sadness. He missed them, but he couldn’t go back. Who Salem was now, was not the woman he fell in love with. He was brought from his thoughts of the past when Ruby spoke again.

“You, um,” she paused for a moment trying to find a way to phrase it without sounding harsh. She had the habit of coming off as uncaring and disconnected when people showed emotions she wasn't used to. Grief was one of them. “Sad? I think that’s what I’m looking for. You seem sad.” She looked at him hoping that she had conveyed what she meant. She felt like he needed a hug, but she also didn’t want to cross boundaries that he didn’t want her to cross. Weiss was an example. At the beginning of their partnership, Ruby had tread around the other girl, testing her boundaries for what she did and didn’t want. After that night on the Docks, Weiss had been more open on what she wanted from Ruby and that had helped the red girl tremendously. But, Ozpin was different. They weren’t partners, they didn’t really have a preexisting relationship she could use to help her, and while he was friends with her uncle and knew her dad, that did  _ not  _ mean she got a free pass to initiate contact if he did not want it.

“Just the past. Nothing to be worried about,” he reassured the young silver eyed girl, but she didn’t seem to be listening, at least not fully. Her face was scrunched in thought so he let her be with them. He enjoyed the silence as he didn’t get to most days between trying to form a plan that would work, running a school, and restless sleep due to how many lives he had lived. He normally only got five hours on a good night, but all could be solved with coffee. He almost cried when the first studies came out on it. Keyword; Almost. His peaceful silence was broken through when Ruby asked one more question he wasn’t really expecting.

“What happened?” He was confused not understanding what she was asking about. Had he missed something while enjoying the silence? No, even when enjoying the peace he was aware of his surroundings. So, he let a confused noise out as a way of asking for clarification.

“What happened to your family? You,” she paused forcing her anxiety away, “You spoke in past-tense and were sad when you were. Talking about them I mean.” A silence fell over the car some of the only sounds being Ozpin adjusting so his legs didn’t fall asleep and their breathing. Ruby freaked out at having messed up, or as Weiss put it “made a faux pa” and blurted out, “Youdon’thavetotalkaboutitiffyoudon’twant! It’s your life and I’m sorry if I pushed, I just don’t know if you need a hug or not and it sounds like you haven’t talked about this in a while and,” she took a breath to continue her explanation but Ozpin decided to save her further embarrassment.

“It’s perfectly alright Miss. Rose, truly. And you are correct in your analysis. My family  _ is  _ no longer around. My daughters died in a house fire. Lia had just turned eight not a week before and Anna was going to be four the coming spring. My wife blamed me. She couldn’t accept her babies were gone and  _ not  _ have someone to blame. We haven’t spoken since. Instead, she insists on using messengers. Not the easiest way, but it keeps the peace, a bit,” he looked over at Ruby again to see if she had any more questions. To his surprise she instead grabbed his arm and pulled him closer for a hug, seeing as she couldn’t really move without ruining the car. “Um,” he was not used to hugs. It had been a few lives since someone else had initiated one with him. It was a little more awkward since he didn’t really know where to put his hands. He settled for her shoulders seeing as they were free and not really covered in blood and organs.

After a moment Ruby pulled away and Ozpin gave her some space before asking, “What was the hug for?”

“You need one. And so does your wife, it sounds like. Dad was the same way when my mom died. He blamed everyone and everything from the weather and location, to me and Yang. He started drinking worse than Qrow,” Ozpin’s look of surprise at the drinking was not well hidden. He was under the impression that at least Ruby didn’t know how bad it was. She continued by saying, “Yes, I know he drinks. And yes I know how bad it is. He drinks less when he’s home, but there are times when he’ll come home and Dad won’t let him in because of how hammered he is. They made an agreement when Dad came back from rehab for his addiction. Qrow can’t come back drunk and he can’t bring any into the house, not even for cooking. It’s too tempting for Dad. So, when Qrow isn’t allowed in the house he normally goes to drink more at the local pub. The owner has an agreement with Yang and I. When Qrow gets too drunk to do anything, as he normally does after some long jobs, he calls the house. Dad can sleep through anything, and sometimes Yang, but when John, the owner, calls we go pick him up. It’s been getting more frequent over the years making it harder to ignore, but it hasn’t gotten to the point where he  _ won’t  _ stop for Yang and I,” she paused for a moment before adding, “I don’t know if you’re helping with that or not, but if you are, thank you.”

“What? How do you know we’re friends?” 

“Your name and contact pic in his scroll,” she answered like he had asked her what color the sky was. He just blinked owly at her. “He gives friends and family the most embarrassing picture he has of them and a nickname. Like mine is me covered in paint because Yang’s prank on Dad went wrong and my nickname is “ _ Future Ruler of Remnant Be it with kindness or an Iron fist. _ ” 

After a moment of processing this information, and the fleeting thought of Ruby ruling remnant, Ozpin opened his mouth to ask what he was, but Ruby beat him to it.

“You want to know what you are?”

“Yes.”

“I believe that your nickname is, and I quote, “ _ Ser Bossy Britches.” _

“I don’t believe you. He uses that scroll for work, he wouldn’t do that.”

“I screenshotted it,” she said with the straightest of faces.

“I want to see it,” he said trying to see if she was bluffing. She just pulled her scroll from her bag and opened her camera roll. She scrolled through it for a moment before pulling up a screenshot of his contact in Qrow’s scroll. Not only was the name true, but the picture was something Qrow had sworn up and down he had deleted! The picture was him with a sign around his neck at a Christmas party out cold and it read,  _ “I was a bad Ozzy. I stole all the Peppermint and Cinnamon schnapps and had them all for myself leaving nothing alcoholic for my friends/co-workers.” _ Snatching the scroll and zooming in closer he could see everyone had signed it and he also recognized the main handwriting.

“I’m going to murder them.  _ Starting  _ with Glynda,” darkness entered his voice, something Ruby had heard before.

“If you plan on pranking people, can you let me help? Please? All you have to do is let me know what you want to do and I can get it done. We have a prank war every few years at my house and no one has figured out I start it every time, or that I’m even a part of it.” Thinking about it for a moment he decided it would be a good option to have a scapegoat, and if she got caught, he’d most likely be the one giving her the punishment, a rule that had come into existence from the time of Team STRQ.

“You have yourself a deal, Miss. Rose. Don’t worry about getting supplies. I’ll get you anything we need. Now, I think we should talk about what is to happen when you eventually get caught.” Oh, his friends were about to rue the day they decided to embarrass this man, and this was the start of a beautiful friendship between the older man and his youngest student.

~~~

A few weeks had passed since Ruby and the Headmaster had come up with a nice agreement on parking and today was the first day of operation; Take Beacon. Well, Ozpin called it revenge, but Ruby was determined to start an all-out prank war between Students and Teachers, but he didn’t know that, so, for now, she plotted alone. 

Their first victim was chosen over the course of a week and the two decided it would be easy if he was a little more involved then he initially planned. Walking into Professor Oobleck’s class Ruby took her seat next to her team. Getting her things out she prepared to take notes. Her team quickly took notice of this as they already had an established system. They would take notes from Weiss’s tape recorder during lunch where she would slow it down so they could understand him and then they would bring their questions to his open office hours and wash and repeat.

“Um, Rubes,” Yang said.

“Hm?” she asked turning her head to look at her sister adjusting the headband she wore so it wouldn’t fall off.

“Why are you taking notes? Weiss has her tape recorder.”

“And since when do you own a headband?” asked the mentioned girl.

“Because I want to take notes today, and a friend gave it to me,” she said. Yang’s sister's senses went off at the mention of a friend. While she didn’t believe her sister was lying about her having a friend, she didn’t think Ruby would keep her getting a gift from one a secret either. Something smelled and it wasn’t Carden.

“Okay,” she said her voice full of skepticism.

A few moments later their instructor walked in, but something was weird. He wasn’t a ball of energy like he normally was, and he seemed like he hadn’t slept a wink at all last night. When the bell rang he started class, and Ruby adjusted her headband one last time.

“Good morning students,” Oobleck said, writing their topic on the board. Everyone looked up in surprise. They could understand him. He was speaking normally. A random student shot their hand up. “Yes?” he called on them.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, quite well.”

“Oh. Well, okay,” they said and so began the oddest class ever. 

While students were packing up in the last five minutes the Headmaster walked in with two cups of coffee.

“Hello. Bart, we finally found a coffee maker that  _ wasn’t  _ tampered with. I thought since you didn’t get much sleep last night you could,” before Ozpin could finish he was practically thrown to the ground as the other man tackled him, downing one of the cups of black coffee. He would have taken the other but it was thrown from the Headmaster’s hands only to be caught by Ruby. She handed it back to him.

“Thank you, Miss. Rose. Bart, you can find the coffee in the teacher’s lounge, but,” he grabbed the caffeine addict before he could make a break for the thing that made him tick, “you’ll probably have to fight for it from the others,” with that he let him go just as the hall was flooded with students.

Later that night Ozpin received an email from “Alice Gold”. Attached was a private RemTube account with only one video titled “Number 1;)”. Ozpin watched it and laughed at how his friend struggled to teach his class  _ and  _ stay awake.

_ “This may just be one of my best decisions, and that Christmas picture was one of your worst my friend. I hope you enjoyed today.” _ After watching the video he went back and checked the message attached at the bottom of the email.  _ “It was fun, and it was an easy class. Let me know who’s next. I’ll be waiting. ~AG~” _ he read to himself. After getting done with it he signed out quickly writing down his username and password on a sticky note and putting it in his inside coat pocket before using his administer access to clear the last few hours of his history.

Turning off all the lights in his office he headed off to his on-campus apartment to get some sleep for the night. He had a lot to do tomorrow after all, like plan to take down his ex-wife, see how his inner circle was doing, and see who his next target was going to be. Oh, this was going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is much lighter and has less of an urgent rush than the last chapter I hope. It was fun to write, and while I'm a little sad that it's ~1/2 the length of the last chapter, I did enjoy writing it. Let me know what you think and some idea's that you have for pranks! I'm not that much of a prankster, so any ideas could help with a storyline.  
> I would like to thank Bakes for helping me spellcheck thing as I don't always get it right and my sister and kitty. both of which are demanding I go to sleep(my cat more than my sister). Have a lovely night!


	4. Ozpin's Breakdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some gore in this chapter please read with caution.

Ozpin wanted to bash his head into a wall. James was supposed to arrive with his first round of chosen students today for the Vytal Festival that was happening in roughly three months. He had fucked up his arrival.

“James sure takes his work wherever he goes,” Glynda said as she resisted the urge to go find him and smash his face into the ground. He was turning out to be more of a headache than Team RWBY in her opinion.

“He’s a busy man, running a school and the military.” He didn’t even sound convincing to himself; that was a bit scarier than those few times his colleagues had almost caught Ruby, either setting up or executing pranks. She had thrown them off her trail though, by setting off a fine glitter bomb in her room. Now, other students were under scrutiny, leaving her some perfect opportunities to do some damage. So far she had hit Bart and Lina. She was scheduled to get Ann around the time of the school dance when everyone would be distracted.

Hearing his computer beep he turned to see who wanted access to his office and saw it was James’s access code flashing on his screen. He made a few keystrokes and the elevator opened to reveal the younger man.

“Ozpin!” James started.

“Hello General,” Ozpin said, falling back into his reserved mannerism. He walked forward and stopped just after his desk making sure the Atlesian would have to come closer to him. It was something he had developed over the years to help instill his authority of those who saw themselves as his equals. No one was truly his equal, well except maybe his Ex-wife, but she didn’t really count. He didn’t see her every day.

“Please,” James said as he continued to walk forward, raising his hand to shake Ozpin’s, “drop the formalities. It’s been too long.” Ozpin let out a chuckle at that.

_ “You have no concept of how I preserve long James. Five years without meeting face to face is nothing to me, my boy.” _

“And Glynda! It has  _ certainly _ been too long since we met up,” he walked over to give the blonde women a hug but she used Ozpin as a shield.

“Oh James,” she waved her hand dismissively at him, her displeasure with him seeping through. She then leaned to Ozpin and said, “I’ll be outside,” and quickly left before she could punch the General for many reasons.

~~~

Weiss watched as the small Atlas fleet landed on the school’s grounds. It had been a while since she had seen anything from her home kingdom that wasn’t being controlled by a bad guy intent on killing her. Winter had written to her a few months ago saying she was coming down with the General for the Festival and while Weiss was concerned why battleships were here she pushed it away in favor of her excitement of seeing her older sister.

“Weiss, how much longer till she’s here~?” Ruby wined. She  _ hated  _ waiting as she had learned over the past few months being her partner and teammate.

“Just a bit longer. When the Atlesian Knights Line up on both sides and Winter starts to make her way down is when we can go great her. You remember what I told you?” she asked. It was very important to her that her team made a good impression on her sister. She was the closest relative that she had and she wanted to make sure she was comfortable with her team. Especially if they planned to  _ eventually _ tell her Blake was Faunus.

“Are we sure this is a good idea? Us being here, I mean. This seems like a personal moment and I don’t feel,” Weiss cut Blake off. She wasn’t going to let Blake feel inferior to her sister.

“Yes. You should be here. You’re not  _ just _ my team. You’re my family and if my sister can’t accept my family as at least some form of a friend then I can cut her off like I have my Father.”

“Wait,” Yang said, “You stopped talking to your old man? Weiss,” concern making itself known, “You know he won’t stop trying to get your attention. You’re his heir. He will...”

“I know. It’s risky, but you see,” she stopped and corrected herself with a steady breath, “ _ saw what _ I was like. If I have to couch surf till I graduate just to not go back there I will.”

“Awww~ Weiss~!” Ruby tackled her older girl from behind effectively getting a piggyback ride, “You can always stay with Yang and I! I have an extra bed in my room since Yang moved into her own a few years ago, and Dad has already said he would love to take us for food as a team! You can stay too, Blake!” Ruby gasped realizing something, “WE CAN MAKE IT A SUMMER OF SLEEPOVERS!!!!!” she shouted in excitement.

“Well,” Blake said laughing, “I think we’ve lost Ruby to her own planning. I think that you’re going to be staying with them for the summer. At least a couple weeks.”

“Well, so long as I have some space, I think I can live with an extra housemate,” Yang said resting her arm on top of Weiss’s head.”

“Back. OFF. Xiao Long!” Weiss yelled using a glyph to move herself and Ruby.

“Blake! Quick! Get em’!” Yang shouted as she dove for the two. 

Blake just settled for recording the endeavor. She loved moments like this. They were a bit short-lived nowadays though. 

Ever since the book shop stuff like this was short and not often. It was a dramatic shift since the beginning, but they did put on a good front for others. They didn’t want help. Asking for help was admitting defeat in their eyes and they had been through worse to admit defeat now. That didn’t help the little voice in their heads go away though. It got a little louder every day. There were days where they just didn’t want to get out of bed for fear of something happening. Ruby’s anxiety had gotten worse too now that Blake was thinking about it. Ruby now found reasons for her team to do something for her that involved other people unless she either knew the person well, or she wouldn’t do the thing at all. It had caused some frustration till Yang had explained that after their mom’s death their uncle had taken them to get help with dealing with it and that was where she had been diagnosed with Social Anxiety. It was a relief to know they could help in some way, but it could also be frustrating for them when it was a bad day for everyone.

~~~

Winter Schnee was elated to see her sister again. It had been a year or so since she had been home so seeing her was a rare occurrence. Even more rare now that the younger girl had gotten out of Atlas. But, the older didn’t mind much. Just meant she didn’t have to run into their father. She wondered how that was going, him taking her not being around to control. Winter had a feeling he would soon cut her off all of her financials. He had done the same to her when she had left for the academy, and she was  _ in _ Atlas.

Walking down the ramp Winter didn’t know what to expect, especially from all the letters describing the team she was paired with, but them playing a game of tag and one recording, was not it. She was relieved, if a bit. At least there weren’t explosions.

“Stop running from me Schnee!” the yellow one shouted.

“Stop trying to get us!” The red one her sister was carrying retorted.

“Never!”

Now standing a little away from them Winter just waited for them to notice her. She didn’t feel like taking this moment away from her younger sister. It would feel cruel to do so. After a bit, the one recording the endeavor stepped in front of the older Schnee and backed up bumping into her. She quickly jumped and let out a sound of alarm alerting her team to the presence of someone else.

Weiss turned to see what would catch the team’s local ninja off guard and seeing it to be her own sister she promptly dropped Ruby onto her feet. Embarrassment burrowed deep in her own chest.

_ “Oh no. This is bad. We were supposed to make a good impression and instead it’s a childish one! She doesn’t look too pleased. Oh! What if this news gets back to Father! He might pull me and place me in Atlas Academy! I can’t have that. What would happen if I beg her to stay quiet? No. A Schnee never begs! Blackmail? But what information do I have on Winter that she doesn’t want Father knowing? Ack! I have nothing! Team RWBY is doomed! The only option I have left is to run away!” _ Weiss’s thoughts spiraled as she panicked and thought of only the worse. She didn’t even notice that her team was  _ attempting  _ to smooth things over for the young girl till Winter addressed her.

“Weiss?” The girl in question looked up finally noticing that she had been asked something. Panicking for a moment she looked at her team for help and Ruby quickly whispered it to her.

“Do you want to come for a walk with us? Think your sister wants to spend time with you.”

“Oh! Yes, I do believe that would be quite pleasant,” and with that, the five began their walk back to the girl’s dorm.

~~~

Ozpin did not want anything to do with James at the moment. He was too busy trying to find a way to spin the fleet outside his window into a positive. He could come up with hundreds of ways to turn this into a negative, against the kingdom they came from, but he wanted world peace, not war.  _ Well _ , not  _ another _ war. He didn’t need two going on right now. Especially since he was caught in musings of the past whenever his mind was free. 

Sighing to himself he placed his head on his folded arms on the desk. If he could make things stop, just go away, he would. He didn’t want this. He  _ never _ wanted anything like this. If he could go to the past and just live one day over and over again, he would choose Lia’s eighth birthday. Everything had been perfect.

He could see it now. All the streamers and orbs scattered around the room. The piano had been pushed to the corner and the furniture rearranged to give the most room for the dancing and celebrating. The original plan was a picnic, but the rain had put a halt to that idea, so things had been moved indoors for the family of six.

Salem had insisted she cook for the event and Ozma had let her, on the agreement that if she needed any help she would call. She wasn’t the best at cooking, but when she put her mind to something she could do quite well for herself. Remembering this Salem, the one he loved so much more than anything else, his daughters being removed from the equation of course. It reminded him of two girls he found himself spending time with. He wondered why, when thinking of his family, it always brought him to Team RWBY in some way. It wasn’t an unpleasant thing when it occurred, but it was distracting. Did he truly feel that attached to them to the point where he might be associating each member with one of his children? That question brought up another. Could he expect them, ask them,  _ sacrifice _ them to win this fight, against Salem? Could he do that and still live with himself afterward? He knew the answer to that though. He had already told James when he left his office not moments ago when he asked the older man if his children could really win a war.

_ “I hope they never have to,” _ had been his response. Now though, now he wanted nothing but to take them and run, as he had attempted to the first time. But running would get him nowhere now. They wouldn’t understand why. They wouldn’t trust him. They wouldn’t want to run. They were naive and thought the world was theirs. Like they could do anything. 

Yang wouldn’t want to be a coward. She wouldn’t want to leave her family and friends as her mother had left her.

Blake wouldn’t want to leave any Fanuns behind. She would want to stay for those who couldn’t fight.

Weiss, she would not want to seem a villain. She was too determined to redeem her family that she would rather go down with the name than to flee for her own safety.

Ruby, the girl who would carry her drunk uncle back home so he would be safe. She would never run from a fight. She was too young to recognize the danger. Too small and childish to realize what he was doing was for the best for her.

As he talked himself out of the idea to take them and run all he could do was remember his children. His baby girls he had tried so hard to protect but had failed so spectacularly that he had night terrors and flashes of that night. He had tried, but his best was not good enough. It never would be, not in his eyes. He had been given a mission and he had traded it for another. It was not a bad trade, in fact, if he had to, he would do it over again, but he had failed his mission as a parent and that would haunt him forever.

Ozpin leaned back in his seat and let the voices, the other souls he had, overtake him. He normally shoved them into the box in the back of his mind where he kept his most painful memories, but ever since thoughts of his family started to seep out, they had started to bombard him. 

They weren’t happy with anything of the arrangement that he had promised them. He had not told them that he was a parasite. He had not told them he didn’t have to have their consent to do anything he wanted with their bodies. He had not told them they did not matter to him. They were simply along for the ride at this point and no matter what they wanted he had ultimate control of the decisions. Their free will no longer existed when he entered their bodies, feeding on their Aura.

Ozpin let their rage flood his mind. He let them do as they would. They could not do anything he didn’t want. They were like intrusive thoughts. Annoying, loud, but would never do true damage unless he acted on them, but he never would.

_ “How could you lock us up!”  _ one asked.

_ “He does not care for us! We are simply a means to an end for him,” _ one of the older ones said.

_ “Wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually kidnaped the four girls he thinks about so often now!”  _ One of the new ones said. That gained his attention.

_ “Excuse me, but could you kindly  _ elaborate _ what you meant,  _ Markis _?” _ he asked venom dripping from his own thoughts.

_ “I meant exactly what I said  _ Ozma _ ,”  _ Markis’ own words dripping with hatred for the older man.  _ “You are a parasite. You only ever take and take, and you continue to cry for the loss of your family that was doomed from the start. To think you could remain happy for the monster that is,  _ sorry, _ was your wife is laughable. She deserved to be chopped up and her parts buried round the world.” _ A deep rage overtook Ozpin and he let his Aura slip through the cracks in the walls he had built.

_ “You know  _ nothing, _ ”  _ Ozpin stood his hand crushing the head of his cane. If it weren’t for the magic ingrained in it it would have been crushed to nothing more than a flat disk of metal.

_ “I know enough to know you  _ have _ no one in your corner. Not truly. As soon as your little  _ ‘inner circle’  _ finds out that you have nothing they will leave you. That’s why you keep it to yourself. You don’t want humanity to die and you don’t want the  _ monster _ that is your wife to die either.” _

_ “I told you to be quiet,” _ Ozpin growled as he moved one of his hands to his desk so he could walk around it. He only got to the side before Markis spoke again.

_ “Why would I  _ ever  _ listen to you? The moment you got the chance you took my body and drank it to death. I was just in the passenger seat watching the car go up in flames around us. I wonder what would happen if I did the same to you? Locking you up so you can’t get out. All you can do is watch your school burn down. Watch your  _ friends _ fight each other. Watch your  _ new _ daughters die over and over and over again.” _ at the mention of the four girls his hand on the desk and it cracked bending to his hand. Ozpin could do nothing as his magic seeped out into the open-air mixing with his leaking Aura creating a dense electrically charged atmosphere.

“I told you to  _ be quiet boy, _ ” Ozpin said, his voice harsh and cold.

_ “Oh! Wait, I can  _ actually  _ do that. You forgot my semblance. Let’s take a look, shall we?!” _ Markis said forcing himself to be seen by the Wizard right before he gave him visions of the school toppling, Grimm everwhere mindlessly killing and ripping people, his students, and those visiting apart, no mercy to be found. A scream split through the images of the carnage and he was forced to see the members of RWBY being ripped apart in the most vicious way possible. 

Yang was ripped open by an Ursa, her insides splayed across the grounds. The dress she wore could not be anything but Charlie’s. Her hair was messy, but it was at one point clearly pulled up into her signature crown braid, the underside untouched. Chunks had been pulled out and were mixed into her parts. It was horrific and he closed his eyes trying to force the image away.

Opening them again he was confronted with Weiss’s limbs being contorted in unnatural ways but her dress was clean of any harm. All he could see was Lia as he saw the dress looked new as the light color of blue shone with the gold accents as they caught the light, but it was not the most disturbing thing in this picture. What disturbed him more was the fact that her own father held her by her hair as he barked orders  _ at  _ her body. He tried to help the girl. He tried to move, but Markis held him still.

“No. You don’t get to  _ hide. _ You watch. See? Isn’t that your little kitty?” Ozpin followed his finger to see Tyrian beating Blake, not just in a fight, but also not relenting when she was on her knees clearly not going to get up to fight him again. Her regular black and purple clothing was changed for matching ones of different shades of pink and gold very reminiscent of Trixie’s. She fell to the ground and they locked eyes and when it seemed she realized who he was and was about to scream for help the life faded from them as the Scorpion Faunus drove his weapons through her chest and pulled down her body forcing them deeper before ripping them from her only for the entire thing to start again.

He closed his eyes only for them to shoot open to a new image. Salem, but this time she wasn’t hurting him, not physically at least. She had Ruby hanging off the black stone table she loved. Her cold hands wrapped around Ruby’s warm neck. What hurt worse was the fact that Ruby was not only staring straight into his eyes begging for help, but she was also wearing Anna’s clothes, her little dog clutched tightly in her hand as she tried to force Salem to let go. Right before Ruby died she stopped trying to keep Salem from hurting her and instead reached for him. When Salem was done, she looked at him, her eyes so much colder then the ones he remembered.

“Let’s have a good last look at that last one, shall we?” Markis’ voice rang out.

“Please,” Ozpin started as the tears finally slipped out, “don’t,” he wanted to run, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get out of this nightmare no matter how much he tried, that is till he heard his name.

“Ozpin?” a soft, horrified voice spoke and he was back in his office. He had slipped to his knees sometime during the events that had transpired. He looked up to find Glynda and James standing there unsure of what they were to do. They had come up because he had not answered his scroll or the office phone and when they arrived he was on his knees shaking as he cried. His desk was shattered and split in half. The windows threatened to shatter and where he was, started to form a crater. 

James was concerned about the Towers' integrity. If this floor came crashing down there was a good chance the rest could come with it, and all because Ozpin was having an emotional breakdown. James wasn’t slighting the man for this, no, he was clearly in an unimaginable amount of pain, probably built up over the course of a few lifetimes. He was simply concerned for the damage this could cause to everyone around him. He could feel the mass amounts of power Ozpin was letting off, and if he was letting this seep out into the open world, he wondered how much negativity he was letting off. The General prayed it wouldn’t be enough to bring Grim. They didn't need them right now.

“Get out,” Ozpin said, his voice quiet as he tried to get control of himself. If he didn’t he feared he would truly hurt people.

“Oz,” Glynda said as she took a step forward and shattered some glass that was once part of his desk.

“I said,” Ozpin raised his voice letting his magic crash out into the room, his eyes glowing green reminiscent of a Maiden when she used her power, but this was different. This was the source of those powers, the one that had started everything and it was not good. The two mortals started to actually fear the man they called a friend. In all the years they had known him, they had never once been given a reason to fear him, but things changed, and Ozma did not want them near him. “Get OUT,” his voice boomed, shaking the windows as his magic picked up the shattered desk and threw it at them. He picked up his cane and held it as Glynda used her Semblance to keep the desk from hitting them. 

She couldn’t believe this was Ozpin, but she didn’t have time to think as James grabbed her and pulled her to the emergency stairs pulling the fire alarm as he pulled her from the room. He didn't stop pulling her down the stairs till they were halfway down the tower.

“Why would you do that?! He needed us!” she yelled, pulling her wrist from his grip.

“No, he didn’t! He just tried to  _ kill _ us!” James yelled back.

“No, he-” James cut her off.

“HE THREW HIS DESK AT US! HE DAMAGED THE FLOOR, AND HE ALMOST TOOK THE TOWER DOWN WITH HIM! HE DOESN'T NEED US!” James yelled at her using his General voice before he caught his breath. “We need to get the tower evacuated. There is a good chance he could still take it down with him. Once people are safe, then we can come back and check on him, alright?” She simply nodded not trusting her voice at the moment.

~~~

When Ozpin heard the fire alarm it was a wakeup call to himself. He looked around the room and finally noticed all the damage he had done as well as how much his magic and Aura had seeped out. He took a moment to pull it back in before standing. He felt sick as those visions played over and over in his head. How had he grown so attached to the four girls in such a short amount of time? He didn’t want to know. All he wanted was to sleep. He felt bad leaving this to Glynda, but he couldn’t be bothered to stay here much longer. It sickened him to know he might have hurt people he liked in this room, so taking one last look around the room he used some of the magic that was still in the air that he couldn’t lock back up to teleport himself to his bedroom. With a flick of his wrist, he was in PJ’s and the blinds were shut with the doors locked. Curling up on the bed he did one last check of his mental lock where he had put the other souls and drifted off into fitful sleep.

Over the next week he called in sick, and when the two mortals finally got back to his office they did everything to try and fix it up for him. They tried to call him a few times to check on him, they even brought him food but they would always find it untouched the next morning.

When he returned to work the following week he was more reserved and distant than before. If it did not pertain to his mission or to school, he didn’t bother with it. That also included ignoring all of Team RWBY’s attempts to talk to him. They had noticed his absence and simply wanted to check on him, but he would not address them, so their concerns went unnoticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for nothing. Tell me what you think! :)


	5. The plot thickens!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glynda starts pushing buttons and JNPR Brings RWBY to the attention of the staff! (Yay!)

Yang was frustrated. Ruby had been doing so well with her anxiety, and even went out and made a new friend! But now that friend was ignoring her and her precious sister had spiraled. Her team had tried to coax the young leader to spend time with them but it was no use. If she wasn’t going to class, training, or eating so teachers wouldn’t notice her change, she wouldn’t do it. It was to the point JNPR had started to notice, and not just Ruby’s change. They also started to notice that there were days when the entire team would have a bad day.

“Ruby,” Blake said as she hopped up on the girl’s bed, “Come on. You have to get up.” Every morning one of the older girls would get their leader up for classes, and every morning it got a little worse. Yesterday had been her turn and it had taken forty-five minutes just to get her out of the bed.

“It’s getting worse,” Wiess remarked as she pulled up her hair in her signature side ponytail. She was thinking of changing it but didn’t want to in case she had to go back home.

“I know. We need to find out who this friend is and at least get them to explain why they don’t want to be friends anymore. For Ruby’s sake,” the two girls looked over to Ruby’s bed as she kicked Blake off the first time of the many to come.

___

After a tedious battle with Ruby, and a promise of her being able to go back to sleep after she finished her homework for the day, the young girl finally got out of bed and ready for class.

“Almost an hour this time,” Weiss said checking her watch as the team went to Goodwitch’s class.

“When I find the  _ friend _ I am going to hurt them,” Yang said, her voice low.

“Just make sure to leave something for us. You forget Ruby is like our sister too Yang,” Blake said her hand resting on the blond’s shoulder.

“Still, you get my point.”

“We do, we just want to make sure you don’t dive into a fight without help. For all we know her friend could be Goodwitch or the Headmaster. We really know nothing about what’s going on,” Weiss commented.

“Which sucks, because the faster we find out who it is, the faster we can  _ talk _ ,” the blond said as they turned into the classroom.

“Your right, but we should still be cautious. We don’t really need a repeat of the Docks, especially if something deeper is going on,” Blake said, reminding them of her kerfuffle. 

“Alright,” Yang said, sitting down next to Weiss. The Ice Queen had pulled her scroll out and was speed texting. Within a matter of moments Yang and Blake’s scrolls buzzed in their pockets. Pulling out her’s, Yang saw the group chat between the three of them to be responsible.

_ Do you see what Ruby’s wearing? _

_ Huh? _ Came Blake’s response.

_ The headband you dolts! _

The other two quickly looked past Weiss to see, she was right. Ruby was indeed wearing the mysterious headband with the little red bow off to the side.

_ Why would she wear that? _ Yang asked. 

_ Do you want to take bets, or can we all finally recognize who it’s from? _ Weiss responded.

_ She did say a friend gave it to her the last time we saw her wear it. _ Blake said, reminding them.

_ Well, she could have other friends that could have given it to her! _ Yang committed.

Blake and Weiss just looked up from their scrolls to her.

“Okay, fine,” she muttered to herself.

_ So, do we have a plan? I mean, all we really want to do is find out who it is, get them to talk to Ruby, and then  _ maybe _ beat them up. _ Blake hit send right as Goodwitch walked in.

Looking up from their scrolls WBY gave halt to their conversation. They had expected their instructor to be wearing her regular white or cream puffy shirt with her pencil skirt and matching leggings with combat boots. That was  _ not  _ what she wore. Instead they got a strict teacher in silver three-inch heels with a black and white dress. The collar of the dress was a delicate lace. The sleeves just rested on her shoulders like that one Disney princess in the yellow and the skirt went down and pooled at her feet in the back and just landed at her knees in the front. Overall, it wasn’t too frilly but was very elegant. She clearly did not plan to wear this today.

“Good morning class,” she said, officially starting class.

___

Class ended and Glynda couldn't be happier. She had woken up this morning and had gone about her regular routine right up until she had gone to get dressed. When she had checked her closet every regular article of clothing had been removed, except for all her dresses and that one Onesy Qrow had gotten her a few years back.

She had checked everywhere for some clue as to where her clothes had gone but had come up with nothing. She had deduced that the prankster had hit her though. So, with little choice she chose her least formal dress that would be easy to fight in should she need to go on a hunt.

If she ever found out who did this, she was going to skin the person. She sat down at her desk as the last of the students left her classroom. She heard a few students greet one of her colleagues and the other teacher greeted them as he entered her room. She could distinctly hear Miss Schnee greet him but there was no response. Looking up she saw Ozpin completely sidestep his not-so-secret-favorite-team.

_ “Odd. Why did he? Never mind that now. He’s been weird all week.” _

She stood and greeted him thankful this was her prep period.

“Ozpin,” she nodded.

“Hello,” He said, pulling a chair over to her desk to sit with her. An awkward silence filled the room as the two sat there. Glynda waited for the Wizard to start the conversation. Finally after a bit he seemed to find his voice.

“I,” he paused for a moment taking a sip from his mug, “I don’t really know why I’m here in all honesty.” 

That made Glynda pause. He didn’t normally admit his uncertainty. Normally he just bottled it up to take out and examine in private.

“I feel the need to apologize to you,” he said, finally settling on one emotion to work through.

“Whatever for?” she asked. Inside all of her red flags were blaring. In all the years she had known him, he was rarely open about anything. He had never once apologized to her. Not truly. Yes, for simple things like bumping into her, but this was new.

“I,” he cringed just slightly, “lashed out at you recently and I feel as though that has,” he paused trying to find the right word, “hindered our relationship. I value you, and I don’t want your view of me, or our relationship, to change.”

The two just sat there as she evaluated what he said. After a long period of silence she finally spoke.

“I appreciate what you have said, but I don’t know where I stand,” he opened his mouth to speak but she raised her hand to stop him, “I’m not saying I won’t follow you into a fight. I will. You have my trust and there's almost nothing that would make it break. Having said that, you threw your desk at James and me. You almost took down your office and by extension the tower. You lost control, and while I’m not slighting you for that, I do believe you need help,” when she finished speaking she leaned back in her chair adjusting the skirt so it didn’t bunch up and become wrinkled.

“I don’t need help, Glynda. I’m older than you can fathom. I have been around since man first walked the surface of this planet,” he said an air of superiority entered his voice.

“Exactly. You are the oldest living being on this planet. You have seen things that would mess with even the strongest of warriors, but you see it almost every day. Have you ever let other people truly see what happens inside your head? Have you ever opened up to someone, and I don't mean with just what they can handle, I mean have you ever laid your soul out there to let someone help you work through things that go on in your mind?” 

Glynda took one of his hands only for him to pull away and promptly stand up and set his cup on the edge of her desk. He had done that, once. In the end he had died in a futile attempt to try and make things better. He could see it now. He could see everything even as he tried to force it away. The other souls started to get riled up. They tried to stop him from lashing out again as he had before, but there was only so much so many voices could do to a man who just didn’t want to listen to anyone.

“I did,” he spun on his toes and walked towards the door holding his cane. The magic in it visibly danced around his hand as he grabbed the knob. Glynda stood to stop him from leaving. She had such a horrible feeling in her gut. She hadn’t ever seen his cane have a reaction to anything, not even when he was having his breakdown.

“Ozpin! Wait!” She took a step towards him, but he opened the door only to be greeted with team JNPR about to knock.

“Hello,” Pyrrha waved.

“Hello,” he said before turning to Glynda and saying, “Have a lovely rest of your day, Goodwitch.”

___

With class over Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. All she had were two more classes until lunch. When she could hide out in her room from everyone. Gathering her things as Professor Goodwitch went to sit down at her desk she headed towards the door where her fellow students were exiting the room.

As she approached the door she could hear students greeting another teacher. Curious, she looked up to make eye contact with Ozpin. A little spark of happiness was quickly squashed as he completely stepped around them not even returning her partner's greeting.

_ “He really doesn't want to be friends anymore does he? No! He’s just mad at something else! But he’s ignoring me. And the team! It has to be something I did. Fine! If he doesn't want to be friends anymore, then I won’t let that affect how I do things! Yeah! But what if- Nope! We don’t ‘What if’ this!” _ Ruby told herself. Sometimes the voice in her head was annoying, especially since recent events, but it was still helpful.

Walking out of the room with the resolve to not care about Ozpin was a good thing for the young Rose. She knew that, yet there was a part of her that cried out in frustration and hurt. It held the same feeling as not knowing what to say, but on a deeper level.

Stepping into her Plant Sciences class she quietly greeted Professor Peach before taking her seat with her team. JNPR sat behind them quietly murmuring to themselves before they all stood up and went to talk to Peach.

Ruby was barely paying attention but she did catch them saying stuff about how Nora and Ren needed to go to the nurse and that Jaune and Pyrrha would take them. Peach nodded and the team was out the door in a matter of seconds. Ruby registered some concern but just brushed it off. What she truly wanted was to sleep all day.

___

Pyrrha couldn’t believe they were doing this. For good reasons of course, but still. Skipping class was not something she would ever condone, but this needed to be brought to people. And who better than Glynda Goodwitch. She seemed to be in the middle of everything.

“Couldn’t we do this during lunch?” Jaune asked looking around for any teachers that would catch them. 

“Oh shush,” Nora said audibly shushing the blond as they reached Goodwitch’s classroom door.

Standing outside they could hear a conversation going on inside.

“Maybe we should knock, so they know we're here and not snooping?” Ren suggested.

“Good choice. Jaune?” Nora said, turning to look at him.

“What! Why me?”

“You’re closest to the door. Now knock!”

“Fine!” he said, raising his fist to rapt the door, but never got the chance.

The door swung open to reveal an angered Headmaster. Not knowing what else to do Pyrrha waver her hand.

“Hello,” she said her team just kept staring.

“Hello,” he returned the greeting before saying, “Have a lovely rest of your day, Goodwitch,” and he walked off carrying his cane instead of walking with it. If Pyrrha wasn’t mistaken, she saw lights dance around his hand holding the object.

“JNPR, what brings you to my classroom during class?” Goodwitch said drawing the bright redhead out of her thoughts.

The team quickly stepped into the classroom and Ren shut the door. Glynda signaled for them to grab some seats where they would normally sit if they had class as she put things in order with a flick of her wrist.

A silence fell over the group for a moment before Goodwitch let out a sigh.

“Look, unless this is super important, I would like to send you back to class. I don’t get many prep periods and so far I have gotten no work done in the,” she checked her watch, “twenty-three minutes and ten seconds that I have been on prep. So, if you could tell me why you're here, that would be lovely.”

JNPR quickly glanced at each other before they all started talking trying to get the information they had out.

“Woe woe woe! Hold it! One at a time!” she said holding her hands to signal them to stop. When they finally stopped talking she spoke again. “Good, now tell me,  _ one _ person, tell me, why you are here.”

Looking at each other again Jaune was quickly elected to speak.

“We think something is wrong with team RWBY.”

“Wrong how?”

“Well, um,” he looked to Ren for help.

“My semblance has the added bounce to help me understand what others are feeling. Team RWBY is all over the place. Not in a good way. They are sporadic and easily spooked. They do everything in their power to stay together whether in a team or in pairs,” Ren said trying to explain it to the teacher that wasn’t constantly around them.

“That sounds normal to me,” Glynda said, taking a seat of her own.

“Okay then, how about the fact that Weiss, Blake, and Yang have to bargain with Ruby to get out of bed. And the fact that on bad days none of them come out of their room. Even when classes are a thing. They call in sick,” Nora said, her normal bubbly attitude gone. Glynda just seemed to be taking in the information, but the team didn’t notice as they just kept telling her what they had seen recently. After a while Glynda had a thought.

“And, do you remember when all these drastic changes started to happen? Can you give me a rough timeline?”

“Uh, yes. The weekend before the new semester began. Ruby had this big plan prepared of taking her team on activities as a way to build trust and bond. They went out to go looking for books. I think that was Blake’s activity, but they came back super late. I think you walked them back to their room,” Pyrrha said recalling the events. 

Glynda couldn’t believe anything that Nikos had said. She had told Ozpin they would need to watch the team for any lingering trauma, and here she was ignoring her own advice. What threw her more was the next statement from the worrier.

“Oh! And I think Ruby’s friend is ghosting her. I heard Yang and Weiss talking about it earlier. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it, but Ruby has Social Anxiety, so making and keeping friends is difficult for the girl. And she threw everything she had into that friendship,” Pyrrha gave pause when she looked at everyone and saw they were just staring at her. “She uh,” she paused, “She told me about her anxiety and her new friend a few weeks back when we were training,” she let a little nervous laugh out at the end.

“I see,” the professor said only to be interrupted by the class ending bell. “I do believe that’s our cue this is ending. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.” And with that she shooed the team from her classroom.

___

To say Glynda wanted to keep teaching would be a lie. What she wanted to do was go to her fellow staff and see if they had noticed anything about the team. She was so angry with herself to not have noticed the team’s spiral downward. 

What if they had been sent on a field mission? What if the teachers had packed extra work on the girls and it caused it to get worse causing Grim? What if one of the girls had had enough and taken matters into her own hands? Glynda didn’t want to go down that path. She didn’t want to think about the worst possible scenario, but she couldn’t stop herself.

As soon as the lunch bell rang she walked to the lounge sending a mass text to her colleagues about an emergency meeting. Things could go so bad so quickly if a hunter brought negative feelings out into the field. It could get worse if a student did it too. She knew from experience and never ended pretty for those wrapped up in negativity.

Stepping into the lounge her colleagues turned to look at her.

“You called?” Peter said. She had called, well, emojied. They had come up with a system of emojis to mean different things if they couldn't, or did not have the time, to type out a full message.

“Let her breathe. She’s in heels today,” Ozpin said, trying to help the woman.

“I will stab you with them too Ozpin,” she said before passing him back his cup he had left in her classroom. Taking a deep breath before starting with her report on team RWBY.

After she had told them what JNPR had told her, others that had noticed some things jumped in to confirm their thoughts. After everything had been said they started to form a plan on what to do.

“Well,” Bartholomew paused to take a sip of coffee, “theyclearlyneedtherapy,” he said.

“Yes. And I think we can cut back on their workload, at least cut a paper or two,” Peter added.

“Do you think it would be a good idea to approach them about the topic?” Thumbelina asked.

“Perhaps, probably not right away though. We don’t need them closing off from us,” Glynda responded.

“No,” a voice rang out among the group. They all looked over the Ozpin sipping on the contents of his mug.

“I’m,” Glynda said, holding back her anger, “sorry?”

“I said no. We won’t give them special treatment. They are first years. They only go on one field mission a year, and it’s supervised. They should be just fine,” and with that he turned to leave only to stop by coming nose to nose with Bart.

“Whodoyouthinkyouare?” he asked. “Theyarestudents! Firstyears! They _ need _ help!”

“We can’t keep giving them special treatment,” Ozpin said sidestepping the man.

“You mean  _ You _ can’t keep giving them special treatment,” Glynda said, her anger finally seeping out.

“I don’t,” Glynda cut him off through stalking closer as her Aura seeped into the air turning her semblance on so things started to float around the room.

“ _ Yes _ you do. Don’t deny it. You only saw Miss. Rose once and suddenly she’s in your school with three days to term. During initiation she led all the students in an attack, and while it was great and she did marvelously, it did not warrant the status as Leader. If anything,  _ Belladonna  _ should have been deemed, Leader. And again! When Belladonna ran from her team they were gone for days and they fought Torchwick.  _ TORCHWICK! _ He could have killed them! And they damaged private property, yet you let them go with no consequences! Why now are you pulling the plug on their special treatment!” She said her anger spiking.

“I have my reasons!” he yelled back, his cup handle breaking from his grip causing the cup and its contents to go tumbling to the ground.

“Well, I want to know them!” she yelled back only to be met with silence as he tried to use his height to intimidate her into backing down. She was not one to back down easily though, and seeing her friends were going to back her on this helped. “You have reasons. Why not share them with the class  _ Ozpin _ ? Or are you scared?” She was dancing a deadly dance right now. She wasn’t disillusioned about this. If he wanted to he could take her, and this entire school down. But in order to help RWBY they needed him to tell them why he didn’t want them to get help. And in order to do that, they needed him to admit his issue with them helping the team, or for him to admit why he was so interested in the team.

“I don’t have to tell you  _ anything _ Glynda Goodwitch. You are  _ here _ because I allow it. I  _ allow _ you to know things, and I can take away that permission in a matter of seconds,” He said darkly, his voice low enough only she could hear. When she said nothing he turned and left.

___

_ “You imbecile!” _ a young voice cried out in Ozpin’s mind.

“ _ Silence _ ,” Ozpin told the other souls as he forced them behind the door. Distancing himself from RWBY was looking to be a lot trickier than he initially thought.

_ “Why did it have to be me?”  _ he sat down on his chair and promptly rested his head down on his arms.  _ “Why did she half try to get the Gods to bring me back? Why did I marry her? Why did I not try other ways before running?” _

_ “Because all you ever do is run?” _ a young voice asked.

_ “Noah, shouldn’t you be behind the door?” _

_ “I want to talk. Look up,” _ the boy said before showing himself to the older man.

“I see you’re still trying things out,” Ozpin said, noticing the change in hairstyles.

_ “Not all of us can be born with the right genitalia. Or with people who support you through things, like you,” _ he said.

“Oh,” Ozpin said, losing all hope in this conversation.

_ “Wait!” _ Noah said, grabbing Ozpin's hand in his delicate fingers,  _ “I’m not saying they 're right to push you like that, but I’m also not saying you are, for pushing them away. What I am saying however is that you have people who care about you. Who  _ will _ support you and won’t throw you out into the cold when you show the first sign you aren’t what they want. Before you, I was trapped thinking I was broken for feeling the way I did. You showing up proved I wasn't wrong. In return I showed you that you needed to get up off your ass and stop drinking and  _ do _ something. Now let me help you again. Please.” _

Ozpin swallowed staring deep into Noah’s eyes. He wanted to say yes. He wanted the help the boy could provide. He wanted nothing more than to have someone to confide in. But he didn’t. He had trusted people. He had tried time and time again, but, eventually, people left him alone breaking the trust he had put in them. He pulled his hand away and forced the boy behind the door. He had work to do, and he didn’t need distractions.

He ignored everything as he worked, even how his magic tried to pull him towards RWBY’s room like a magnet. He had resolved to distance himself from them. For their own protection, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it was them he was protecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry, this took longer than the others to get out. I just found I had no idea what the hell I was doing in this chapter, but I got there. I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know! Oh! and I changed how POV switches. Curious if this looks better. Let me know!


	6. Our Villens Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's take a break and see what the other side of the coin is doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI!!! Posting this here just so people actually see it! For the next six weeks, starting tomorrow, I will not be posting anything. I will be getting a head start on my last year of high school, and I will have little to no free time. At the end of these six weeks, I will have three days to myself and then I start school again. I may be able to post after, but most likely will only be able to get a chapter out every month or so. I'm posting this chapter as a way to kinda settle this for a bit if that makes sense. Don't worry! I have no plan to abandon this story. I will be back, and I'm already working on seven. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think! I like to hear from you guys! Also! Bakes! Thanks for being my spell checker! You da' best! All the love to everyone! Have fun!!! <3

To say Salem was angry would be an understatement. She had just gotten off a call with Cinder to check on how their plans were going, and while they were on track, in fact, a bit ahead of schedule, that was not why she was angry. She was angry because she had found out the opening day of the mortals “Vytal Festival”. It sickened her to think the man she once loved would sully her baby’s birthday by creating a day where people didn’t even know what they were celebrating.

Walking out of her meeting hall she turned to walk to her private wing. She wanted to be alone. She didn’t need Watts or Tyrian to talk to her right now. While she didn’t mind how the Faunus swooned over her, she was a Goddess, after all, but it did get annoying how he tried to get her attention  _ every time _ he opened his mouth. Honestly, if she wanted to have this attention, she wouldn’t have gone into hiding after her  _ fight _ with Ozma. 

Or was it Ozpin now? She didn’t really care, but she was curious why he changed his name. Was it a way to distance himself from her, or their history? Either way, it was a tad frustrating not knowing.

Walking into her rooms she sat down at her vanity. While she would never claim to be a vain woman, she did like looking nice, if only for herself. She had been excited when she had her first daughter. She could remember how she felt when the doctor announced her to the new parents. Ozma had been ecstatic, even though she had shattered a few bones in his hand during the process. The doctor had actually tried to insist that he not be in the room during the birth. Had she not been in active labor, and in a great deal of pain, she would have thrown the fool out the window. Luckily Ozma had talked her out of it, right before he had dragged the doctor out and put the fear of, well, himself into him.

She couldn’t help but smile at the memory. It was one of the only times he had ever played into his God persona. He normally just let her do the work, cheering from the sidelines. 

Being brought from her musings she looked over to the floor to ceiling windows that spanned one of her walls. Seeing the new Grim get a grip on their new powers was always amusing but in a sick twisted way that she knew it was her Grimm side that liked to envision the carnage they would bring. But, there really wasn’t a point in denying that side of herself anymore. No one cared if she existed anymore, nor did they care what she did. Ozma had proven that the night he tried to take her children from her, and he had succeeded, if not the way he initially planned.

She could remember it now. After she had ended his existence in that body she had breathed a sigh of relief only to go back on high alert when she saw some rubble move. In a matter of seconds, it had been pushed aside to reveal four little girls all scuffed up and scared. She had made to approach them, but they stepped back scared of her. It had been the first time they had seen magic used in a negative way, and they didn’t know how to handle it.

_ “It’s alright,” _ she had said, trying to get them to come to her, but they hadn’t been swayed by her pretty words. Under normal circumstances, she would be so proud of how much they took after her in that aspect, but right now was dangerous. Right now she needed to push past her own pride and get to her babies.  _ “Please. It’s alright. Mama’s here. I’m not going to hurt you,” _ she had promised them, and she meant every word. 

Annalise had been the one to split off from her older sisters and while she was just two and a half, she held such bravery to be able to leave something that had proven to be safe. As she approached Salem had held out her hands to scoop her child, but then things went blank. She couldn’t remember anything for a moment or two, but what she did remember next was blood and body parts and Grimm. So many Grimm. She had looked around and a wave of deep-seated anger filled her. It had been the first time she had controlled a Grim, and it certainly wasn’t the last.

A knock at the door pulled her from her memories. She stood and swung it open to come face to face with Hazel.

“What do you want?” she asked her voice sharp and displeased. No one was supposed to enter her wing unless necessary.

“Watts has sent a report on Pietro’s experiment. We thought you would want to look it over,” he said a tad nervous.

“I see,” she pulled away from the door and went back to her vanity and pushed in the delicate chair before she turned back and led the man back to the meeting hall.

~~~

Roman wanted to riot. So did some of the Whitefang. This absolute bull if you asked him. Cinder had told him to collect Dust. So he had collected Dust. Now, she was telling him to dump it! It was worth almost as much as the city! He wasn’t going to just dump it but if he was going to keep it, he would need a place to put it, and considering there were two warehouses full of the stuff it wouldn’t be easy. He’d need to pull a few strings, call a few people, and make some arrangements. 

But first, he needed to call Neo. She was supposed to be coming in soon from Mistral to help with the coming events. He was kinda excited for Red to meet his partner. He just knew they would get along swimmingly.

Pulling out his scroll he pulled up the video call and dialed up Neo. It rang a few times before she picked up. She looked a tad annoyed and considering where she  _ appeared  _ to be it wasn’t surprising.

“Having fun?” he asked laughter in his voice. 

She did not look amused, however. She gave him a look telling him to shut up and get to the point or else she was hanging up and getting back to what she was doing.

“Oh come on! I’m not going to wake the bloke! That’s your job!” he teased. In the beginning, this had been awkward. They had grown up, trained, and lived together since they were children. They were the only family they had, so naturally, seeing each other in a physical manner was a bit awkward in the beginning, but Neo never really hid the fact that this was who she was and so he had just learned to go along with it. 

She cocked an eyebrow and raised her finger making a point to show him she was going for the “end call” button.

“Wait! Don’t hang up! I’m actually calling for a good reason!”

She put her finger down and waited for him to explain.

“Okay, so, you know how you’re supposed to be coming in soon?”

She nodded and adjusted herself pulling the sheet up higher. She hated being cold so early in the morning, and Roman smiled at the thought of her huddled under blankets just being the cutest. She scowled at him, realizing he wasn’t paying too much attention.

“Okay! I’m back, but like I was saying, I think Red and her little rag-tag-team of wannabe heroes might be catching up to us. Heard from a friend of a friend that they are throwing themselves into Whitefang business. I was curious if you could speed up your timeline and get your little self back down here,” he said lighting a cigar.

She nodded and rolled out of the bed keeping her grip on her scroll. She looked back down at Roman when he let out a sound of alarm.

“Gah! What the fuck Nee! Don’t flash me! You know I don’t like seeing you like this!” he cried out dropping his scroll on the table.

She stuck out her tongue but turned her camera off for a moment or two while she got dressed. After dressing and accounting for her things she quickly left her partner in the bed through a window. She was glad she had used her Semblance when choosing her partner for the previous night. Seeing that she was safe she reopened her camera for Roman and signaled she was on her way.

“Thanks, Love! See ya’ in a bit!” he said before she hung up.

~~~

Adam was not pleased. This  _ Human  _ had come to him. Had asked him and his faction for help in bringing justice to their people, and she had used them to get Dust? And had left them there had they gotten hurt? This was absolutely shit. This was not what they had agreed too. This was not what he wanted. This, this was so different from the Belladonna's original view. From his own. 

He sighed as he sunk into his chair. He didn’t know how to proceed. He wanted to do what was right, but Humans wouldn’t listen when they were peaceful. They were simply met with so much hatred. Could they not ever be equals? Could Humans not look at Faunus and see the same thing? They really only had one physical difference that could prove helpful if needed! 

He rested his head in his hands. Feeling his mask push into his skin he removed it and placed it on the desk as one would should they wear glasses.

He didn’t want this. He had never wanted to be the villain in someone’s story, but if it took being the villain to see the good win, to see equality rise, then he would become the monster parents tell their children that goes bump in the night.

~~~

Cinder was quite pleased with herself. She was ahead of schedule, Salem had praised her, and she was already moving forward with the second step of this plan. She looked over her designs deciding the pants and tight shirt would do nicely. She was basing her new “Teen” clothing on what Emerald wore and she was displeased at the lack of personality it held.

_ “Are Students really into this garbage? I know I’m only twenty-eight, but still,”  _ she thought to herself as she started up her sewing machine. She wasn’t going to put dust in these clothes, no. She would be near Roman’s  _ Little Red _ and she didn’t need the little girl noticing her. 

She scoffed at the little girl. Whoever let her into the academy so young either had a thing for her, knew her personally, or was projecting something from the past they hadn’t let go of onto her. Sure, she wouldn’t deny the girl had skill, she did, but not enough to prompt skipping grades.

It wouldn’t matter though, none of it would by the end of the Festival. She smiled to herself and continued her work happy to take this moment for herself. By the end of the year, this world would be rocked to its core by herself and those around her, and she couldn’t wait to watch it burn.


	7. Ozpin is a dick. That's something everyone can agree on, Right?

Glynda was pissed, to say the least. The entire faculty of Beacon Academy was angry. Ozpin had just told them they could not help team RWBY and to say that was abnormal would be an understatement. He had his own problems and was taking it out on the team.

“Okay, so he said we couldn't help RWBY, but not that we could cut all our work for  _ everyone _ ,” Thumbelina said as she took an angry bite out of a donut.

“Veryvalidpoints! Weshoulddothat!” Bart said as he sipped his coffee.

“He’ll catch on pretty quick though,” Petter said as he flipped through some work.

“Well, we can’t just sit here and do nothing! If they get sent on a field mission, they could get hurt or worse. Not to mention the team’s  _ affinity _ for trouble,” Glynda said as she paced the room trying to form a plan. She stopped when she thought of something decent enough and told her coworkers. 

They would stop all work and only do one big thing a week, preferably alternating with another teacher so that when one thing was due in one class, a new teacher would then assign a new assignment. They would cut all homework unless a student requested some.

“What if they think we’re messing with them? If I remember correctly a prank war has popped up amongst the students in retaliation with the one who keeps pranking us and the one who snagged team RWBY,” Peach asked.

“We say we’re proving a point to the Headmaster. Not too far off from the truth,” Glynda said, and that’s exactly what they did.

The staff spent the entire night and well into the morning rewriting the year’s curriculum and making it easy so that Ozpin couldn’t call anyone out on what they were doing. Having everything done they all broke to get some much-needed sleep.

~~~

Glynda had just crawled into bed choosing to not change her clothes. It would take too much effort and all she wanted was sleep. Curling up on top of the covers she closed her eyes only to be startled by the blazing of her clock.

She let out a groan of frustration before she pulled herself over to the edge of the bed and rolled off it. She sat there, on her carpeted floor for a moment before hauling herself up. Moving to her closet she found all her clothes to be where they once were. Grateful for this she quickly got dressed and planned out just how much coffee she was going to need for the day. It was probably going to be a lot if she was honest.

~~~

A month or so had passed since Ruby had returned Goodwitch’s clothes and she couldn't be more frustrated. She had told herself she was going to completely cut the Headmaster off and not give a damn what he thought, yet, she had only gotten bolder and bolder with her pranks. He refused to acknowledge her, and in turn, this just hurt her more. She sat there, in the cooling water of her team’s bathroom tub and just listened to her team, friends, her second family she had made and closed her eyes.

For the past month she hadn’t understood why Ozpin had suddenly pulled away, she still couldn’t. She had gone through all of their interactions and she hadn’t found anything that she had done that would make him pull away from her.

_ “What did I do?”  _ she asked herself. She had been asking herself that for a while now.

_ “I didn’t do anything. It’s his fault we’re like this. Why we’re here,”  _ the voice in her head said.

_ “No. I can’t keep blaming him. I’m the one who thought we were friends. I shouldn’t have jumped the gun,”  _ she argued.

_ “Bull shit. His leprechaun ass is the reason we are here. Why we even exist. Why we were even born,” _ the voice said viciously.

This gave Ruby pause. What was that about? And why was she trying to blame him for her existence? He wasn’t her dad, nor was he related to any of her relatives. Not that she knew. Something inside her twisted as she tried to figure this out, but she was distracted as there was a knock at the door.

“Ruby?” Blake called.

“Hm?” she asked.

“You have been in there for a bit, and I was wondering if you could hurry up, just a bit. I want to shower tonight and my ears need cleaning.”

“Okay. Just a second,” she said as she got out completely forgetting the things that had happened moments prior.

~~~

Weiss had made her way to Winter’s room, and as she stood outside her door, pillow in hand, she hesitated. She had told her team she wanted to stay the night with her sister, but now that she was here she just wanted to run. Something inside her took control and suddenly she was knocking. Panic filled her and just as she was about to turn and leave, the door opened.

“Weiss,” Winter greeted her.

“Hi,” she said as she inspected her pillow. Why was she acting like such a child? She was the heiress to the SDC! She shouldn’t be acting like Ruby. She was trained and groomed to be better than her!

Following that line of thought just made her feel worse. She shouldn’t be calling Ruby out like that. She was a good kid who just hadn’t realized what the world truly was yet. Or, had she? The entire team dynamic had changed since their outing almost four months ago.

“Come on,” Winter said, stepping aside and dragging the younger Schnee inside with a glyph. She then set her on the couch in the living room.

Winter wasn’t a student so she got one of the on-campus apartments for her stay there. Normally she would be a bit annoyed that Beacon administration had forced her to take the place, but for right now, she was grateful. 

Winter walked to the little kitchen and made herself some tea and her baby sister some cocoa. It wasn’t what she would have expected her sister to drink, but when she had first met her team, they had gone out for food. She had discovered her sister’s team was actually doing her some good. They had introduced her to some new food and different cultures, and that had pleased the elder Schnee.

Bringing the drinks back over to the living room she set Weiss’s on the table and sat in the chair next to her. She waited for Weiss to talk. It was something she had learned when observing her. If given the time and opportunity Weiss would fill the silence. She didn’t appear to like it too much. Finely, Weiss spoke. 

“Can I sleep here...” she asked before adding, “with you?”

Winter was a bit confused. Weiss hadn’t slept in her bed since before she went off to the academy. Why would she want to sleep with her now?

“Why?” she asked her voice full of confusion.

“I just,” she paused, “feel like being with you, but seeing as how this is not going well I’m going to go back to my room. Thank you for the coco,” she said trying to make a hasty retreat. 

“Weiss,” Winter said standing up and grabbing her sister’s hand, “I didn’t tell you ‘No’. You can stay here with me for the night. I was simply curious as to why.”

“Oh,” Weiss said. Something inside her warmed up to the idea that her sister cared a little more than she appeared. “Thank you, Winter.”

“Yes,” she said before ushering her sister into the bedroom, “I do believe you have classes in the morning, and I will not be held responsible if you’re late. Off to bed now. I’ll be in, in a bit.”

~~~

Blake had just laid down in her bed and was trying to get comfy, but it wasn’t going well. She couldn’t shut her brain off, and the longer she talked with herself, the more frustrating the conversation got. Her mind was like a tumbler.

For the past few months, ever since the Docks incident, she had started spiraling trying to wrap her head around the fact that the White Fang, the organization her family had poured their hearts into, would work for a... a...

“ _ Monster? _ ” a voice in her head spat out.

“Yes!” she whispered to herself. “He’s such a monster! Why would they  _ ever _ work for, or even  _ associate _ with that,” again the voice in her head spoke up.

_ “Dick. I mean, who in their right mind would  _ ever _ work for  _ him _ ,” _ it spat out.

“I know!” she cried a little too loudly. 

She jumped a bit when Yang hung over the side of her bed, her sleepy lavender eyes searching the dark for a moment before finding her.

“You good?” she cleared out sleepily.

“Yeah,” she paused for a moment before sighing, “No. Can’t sleep. Can’t really,” she trailed off. Her eyes moved past her partner to rest upon the bed that held the youngest of the team. Things had just been so hard for her. For all of them really. Things hadn’t been the same for a while, and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. The voice in her head was just as apprehensive.

“Hello? Blake~” Yang said quietly, waving her hand in front of her face.

“Sorry. Was just,” Yang cut her off. Her eyes softened as she reached her hand down for her.

“It’s alright. Come on. Sleep with me. Could use the comfort tonight,” she said.

“Thank you,” Blake said, taking her hand.

~~~

Glynda’s stomach turned as she and, well, her team made their way down the halls and to the elevator. They had been debating doing this, confronting Ozpin, for a bit now, and she couldn’t really believe they were doing it. But, when Winter had come to her and James and expressed genuine concern for her younger sister, and by extension her team, they had decided enough was enough.

_ “If Ozpin is letting his own issues interfere with how we handle RWBY then we work on his issues. Whether he wants to or not,”  _ she hummed to herself.

Stepping inside the elevator she quickly counted heads.

“James, Winter, Bart, and Petter,” she muttered to herself as Winter hit the buttons.

The ball of anxiety in her stomach grew as the numbers above the door crept up. She knew this probably wouldn’t end well, and that Winter was probably going to learn a lot more than she wanted to by the end of the night, but she somehow felt at peace with her decisions. 

The doors opened and she stepped out nodding in greeting to Ozpin as he looked up from his work.

“Hello,” she said using her semblance to move the chairs in front of his desk so they could sit. Once everyone was seated a tense silence filled the room as Ozpin set his pen down realizing this was a conversation that needed his attention. After a bit longer he finally broke the silence with a sigh.

“Do you need anything from me? Or are we just going to sit here watching me do paperwork?”

“Yes. I mean no! I,” Glynda let out a frustrated sigh. She was a grown woman, yet here she was acting like a child. She couldn’t really say she didn’t understand though. Ozpin had been avoiding this discussion for months now, and she wasn’t entirely sure how it would go.

_ “Probably bad,” _ she thought to herself as she took a deep breath to ready herself.

“We need to talk,” she said, refusing to break eye contact for fear she would lose her nerve. There was so much she didn’t know about him, and what he would do when backed into a corner or, in this case, when pestered about things he didn’t want to remember.

“That doesn't normally mean a good thing, Glynda,” he said, forcing a light chuckle.

“I know,” she said pausing before deciding to just go for it. “Something’s wrong. You keep pulling away from us and shutting off any form of affection you can. We’re worried for you.”

“Oh,” he said in a dull voice, “so, we’re still going on about this? I thought I had told you to let it go.”

“Youdidn’tacctulytelluswecouldn’tbringthisupatalatterdate!” Bart said in a rather serious tone.

“Well, I’m saying so now, if that’s all, then please leave. I have quite a lot of work to get done tonight,” he said smiling before turning back to the work.

“Oh! Screw the work! You can’t avoid this anymore Ozpin!” Glynda said using her semblance to collect the work and shoving it into the trash bin.

He simply paused for a moment before looking up, and while holding eye contact with her, he scooped the work back onto his desk.

“I don’t  _ need _ to tell you  _ any _ of my problems.”

“Yes, you do,” James said rather firmly standing to his full height! It was something he would do to intimidate other people when frustrated with his work or their performance. He didn’t realize, though, that this wouldn’t work to do anything to Ozpin but frustrate him more.

_ “Do not try to intimidate me boy,” _ Ozpin thought,  _ “This won’t end well for any of you.” _

_ “It could also not end well for you,”  _ Markis said.

_ “I really don’t need you right now. Go back behind the door,”  _ Ozpin ordered before turning his attention back to the people in front of him. Seeing as James had yet to sit down he chose to stand to his full height.

“James,” he started before he was cut off.

“No! You don’t get to try and intimidate your way out of this. We aren’t leaving till we talk about this,” Peter said, his normal, jovial voice replaced with that of a man who had actually done half the things he claimed in class.

Ozpin turned his eyes sharply to the man before finally relenting. He picked up his cup and cane and made a beeline for the elevator. He didn’t  _ need _ to talk about anything.

Right as he was about to reach the doors James cut him off.

“We’re not leaving till we think you’re okay,” he said. Ozpin just turned on his heel towards the stairs only to be met with a white Beowolf. His eyes snapped to Winter.

“What are you even doing here? You have no reason to! We’re not friends!” he snapped at her.

_ “You might not be friends, but she at least cares enough about your well being to dive headfirst into your bull shit!”  _ Markis snapped back in her defense. Not that anyone but Oz could hear.

“I told you to get behind the door Markis!” Ozpin snapped out in frustration. This caught his companions off guard. Those that knew he reincarnated had never heard him speak to or even refer to his former lives.

_ “Oh shove it! I’m not leaving! I might make it my after life’s mission to make your lives suck, but I do not want to deal with an angsty Ozpin anymore! He’s not fun,”  _ Markis said, forcing Ozpin to see him.

“For fucks sake! I’m not dealing with you right now. Just leave!” Ozpin told his past self.

_ “No. We aren’t leaving you,”  _ Noah told him from one of the empty chairs.

“Oh you have  _ got _ to be kidding me! Noah! I thought you don't like Markis.”

_ “I don’t. I just agree with what he’s saying so far,”  _ he said in a matter of fact tone.  _ “It might also be a good idea to let them see us. Just so they don't think you’re nuts,” _ he finished off quietly. 

Ozpin let out a frustrated growl from deep within his throat before letting out some of his aura and magic so that the two other souls were visible. “Happy now traitor?” he asked, glaring at Noah.

“Yes. Thank you,” he paused for a moment before deciding to just go for it. “I would be even happier if you told your friends why you’re so cranky. I know I know!” he said putting his hands up in defense. “It sucks that I don’t look like I’m in your corner, but I am! If you could at least tell them why you’re pulling away from Team RWBY, why you don’t want to be friends with Ruby herself anymore, then I would be happy.”

“I’m  _ not _ pulling away from the team! They just need to accept that they don’t get special treatment.”

“Because you’re being a dick?” Markis asked knowing it would get a riel out of the man.

“Markis!” Noah snapped. “You aren’t helping!”

“And neither are you! Being nice and asking isn’t going to get him to say anything and you know it!” he snapped back.

“Enough! Both of you aren’t helping! Unless you have valuable information to give to us about why he’s pulling away, then just go away,” Glynda interrupted them. She was definitely going to get a headache after this. To her surprise, Noah vanished, but Markis stayed. 

His eyes softened as he said one last thing before disappearing as well, “Ask about the girls.”

“Who?” James asked, confused.

“IdobelivehemeansTeamRWBY,” Bart spoke. Ozpin just looked so frustrated.

“I’m leaving,” He said, pushing past James only for the man to grab his upper arm keeping him from leaving.

“James. You are testing my patience right now, boy.”

“I don’t care. Who was...” James paused for a moment making sure he had the right name, “Markis! Who was Markis talking about?”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to sit here and tell you things! That’s not who I am. I haven’t been that person for a really long time,” he said his age slipping through.

Ozpin was just so tired. He didn’t want to do anything anymore. He just wanted to not exist, but knowing him, and what had once existed, he would never get that chance. He was starting to think he would never achieve his mission. If only he could ask for help and not get thrown out into the rain again.

“But you were at one point, no?” Winter’s calm voice reached him. He turned his eyes towards her ready to shoot back that it didn’t matter and that she should not stick her nose where it didn’t belong, but he was met with a warmth he did not expect from the Schnee. “You asked why I’m here,” she started only for James to cut her off.

“I don’t see how this is relevant, Schnee,” His eyes were hard as he stared her down. She, for once, didn’t seem to care that he was her commanding officer.

“I am here because of my sister and the fact that she has made it clear with her actions and interactions with her team that she would gladly leave behind the family, our family, to be with her team. I am here because the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. I couldn’t do much for Weiss in Atlas, but I can, here. You gave her the freedom she needed and, from the sound of it, were on the way to trying to become her friend. A person she, and her team, can look up to. But now, because you are scared, you are damaging the trust they have given you. The trust you have worked to earn. Weiss came to me last night and asked to sleep with me. She hasn’t done that since before I left for the Academy, That’s been almost six years. Six years she has not needed me for more than guidance, yet suddenly she needs me for more? She is hurting, and so is her team. They need you, yet you are so fearful of...” she paused to find her words, “Yourself? I don’t know what, but you are so fearful of it that it haunts you and keeps you held forever trapped in place. You think you are fine but you aren’t and the people around you see you are hurting and they are trying to help you but they can't unless you let them. And you can’t help my sister and her team,” she paused one more time before finally saying what she had suspected since she laid eyes on her sister playing tag. “You can’t help her and her new family if you can’t get help yourself. You are only allowing the fire to jump to another house, and this isn’t a fire that they can walk out of. It’s not one you can either, but here are your friends, people who  _ want _ to actively help, but they won’t know what's water or fire dust unless you tell them, so please, for Team RWBY’s sake just tell them. Please,” she begged him. It wasn’t often she opened up, but he needed to understand, and the only way she saw that happening is if she did.

It took a while, but finally, he broke the silence, but not in the way any of them expected.

“I had kids,” he said his voice cracking as he let tears slip. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!! I live! I know. This is not six weeks later. Please put the pitchforks down!   
> Now! Since I know some people are wondering, I had some health issues pop up that I had to deal with. No, it's not the thing. Yes, I'm fine. Yes, kitty is fine too. I also did pass my online classes with near-perfect scores. I was even given the option to graduate early. I've come too far not to walk through, so... yeah.   
> I also got a new job, so chapters may be delayed to maybe once or twice a month. We'll find out soon!   
> Thank you Bakes for editing this and putting up with my procrastination!   
> Now! Remember! I love the comments! Don't be afraid! Even if it's just a heart! I know we sometimes want to kudos more than once but aren't given the options! I love you all! I must now sleep!


	8. Not a new chapter, but an Update. Also, bring me your questions! I want to wander them!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An update and stuff. Chapters 8 and 9 are super hard for me to write and I want you guys to know I have not forgotten this story.

Hey! So, I know it's been a few months, and I'm sorry. No, I am not dropping this story. Quite the opposite. But, I have run into a bunch of issues. I'm currently on the 6th iteration of chapter 8 and 9. I want these next two chapters to be good. Like, good good. I know I shouldn't put this much pressure on these chapters, but once it is (eventually) posted, you will understand why I want these to be good.  
These are essentially supposed to explain the lore and stuff for this story, and normally I would spread it through the story, but you can't explain the kids without the lore, so yeah.

But! If you have questions, leave them for me and I might do a Q/A with the characters. Or, put it in the chapter. Sorry, this isn't a chapter, but I just wanted to update you guys. Thanks for your understanding.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Glad you made it this far! I do hope it wasn't too boring, and I do apologize if it seems like a low start, or if it seems like this is the same. As said before, this is a bit slow in the beginning, but I am simply laying the groundwork right now. Let me know what you think, or any idea's you have. I'm open to other's views, and if you have any recommendations on ships, or how to handle ships, let me know. I don't mainstream ship often, but when I do, I do try to make it palatable. Now, one last thing before you go! Please, pet my kitty. She has had to put up with me not petting her all day because of this and she would greatly appreciate some positive pets! Have a lovely day!


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